In 2003 the World Calibration Centre for volatile organic compounds (WCC-VOC) which forms part of the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) program coordinated the first comprehensive intercomparison exercise among the GAW-VOC community. The intercomparison focused on a synthetic C 2-C 11 VOC standard mixture in nitrogen (N 2) and involved nine different stations/laboratories (10 instruments) from seven countries (Brazil, Canada [two labs], Czech Republic, Finland, Germany [two labs; three instruments], Ireland, and Slovakia), representing four measurement programs (GAW, EMEP, CAPMoN, LBA). These sites either run canister or online measurements. WCC-VOC provided each participant of the intercomparison exercise with standard gas canisters which contained 73 VOCs prepared and certified by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder. The participating laboratories were expected to identify and quantify as many compounds of the WCC-VOC standard canister as possible based on their routine identification and calibration methods. The primary objective of this first intercomparison was to examine the current performance status of the analytical facilities of each laboratory and to check whether the results meet the Data Quality Objectives (DQO) developed by WCC-VOC. An additional objective was to establish a ranking of properly determined compounds among all laboratories in order to identify compounds which could be most accurately determined by all laboratories. Due to the variety of sampling and analytical methods among the participants both the number of identified species (16-150 VOCs) and their proper quantification differed largely. Focusing on a subset of 28 VOCs recognized as primary GAW target compounds the results show that the DQOs for repeatability are met in most cases. However for the deviation from the WCC-VOC reference values the picture is different. For some VOCs the concentrations differed significantly among the different laboratories. In terms of both uncertainty and repeatability a significant number of atmospherically relevant VOCs (e.g. propane, propylene, isoprene, and benzene) are properly determined by most labs. However, difficulties occur with other important VOCs (e.g. acetylene, i-pentane, toluene). From this subset of VOC results it appears imperative to strengthen harmonization procedures particular with regard to real air samplings. These processes have been initiated and include more frequent intercomparisons also covering ambient air samples, individual performance audits, and a future networkwide calibration standard.

In-situ GC-FID system for atmospheric CH4 and CO mixing ratio measurements at the Shangdianzi (SDZ) GAWregional station in Beijing was designed and optimized in 2009 based on a comparable system at the Waliguan GAW global station in Qinhai. Results from this study indicate that the system's precisions for CH4 and CO are higher than 0.03% and 0.45% respectively, which can meet the quality target on background greenhouse gas observations by the World Meteorology Organization's Global Atmosphere Watch (WMO/GAW) program. The selection method of working standards for this system was established: two working standards (WH for the high concentration and WL for the low concentration) were selected, the concentrations of CH4 and CO in these two standards can cover the ambient mixing ratios of CH4 (2 007.1 x 10(-9) and 1 809.5 x 10(-9)) and CO (405.6 x 10(-9) and 123.8 x 10(-9)), an injection sequence was programmed so that the two standards were analyzed alternatively for every three runs. The measurement accuracies are high, as shown by the standard deviations less than 1.7 x 10(-9) and 1 x 10(-9), for CH4 and CO, respectively. This method has been applied to in-situ measurement of atmospheric CH4 and CO in North China. PMID:22452181

To improve our understanding of the impact and the time-scales of atmospheric pollution transport and to understand the mixing ratios of non- or weakly reactive gases observed within monitoring programmes such as the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) programme global scale atmospheric transport models provide valuable and requisite information. Atmospheric transport described in a Lagrangian framework, contrary to the Eulerian approach, does not suffer from numerical diffusion. In addition, information on transport times of newly released emissions is easily accessible in the Lagragian concept. Therefore, Lagrangian models are the ideal tool to answer the questions raised above. To this end the Lagrangian particle dispersion model FLEXPART (Version 8.0) was extended and set up on the global domain with 3 million particles that are permanently transported based on ECMWF wind fields. All particles carry 9 different counters that indicate times since certain atmospheric regions were left: 1 counter for each of the 6 WMO regions keeping track of atmospheric boundary layer contact, 2 counters for inter-hemispheric transport, and 1 counter for stratosphere-troposphere exchange. Thirteen different species are represented with each particle: 1 atmospheric air tracer, 6 carbon monoxide (CO) and 6 methane (CH4) tracers according to emissions from the 6 WMO regions. Gridded emissions are taken up by particles passing through the atmospheric boundary layer of each grid cell and are based on constant EDGAR3.2FT2000 (anthropogenic) and 8-daily GFED (v2) (biomass-burning) emission inventories. Degradation of CO and CH4 (and also CO production from CH4 degradation) is considered by temperature and pressure dependent reaction with hydroxyl radicals (OH). Monthly OH fields are taken from HTAP. Global monthly mean fields for each species, each clock and 11 age-classes are produced by the model and offer detailed insight into the time-scales of transport and the contributions from different source regions. Furthermore, receptor concentrations (daily temporal resolution) are produced for selected GAW sites and allow for model inter-comparison and interpretation of observations. In this contribution we present details on the model concept and first results obtained for an iterative spin-up run for the year 2001.

Genetic Analysis Workshop 17 (GAW17) provided a platform for evaluating existing statistical genetic methods and for developing novel methods to analyze rare variants that modulate complex traits. In this article, we present an overview of the 1000 Genomes Project exome data and simulated phenotype data that were distributed to GAW17 participants for analyses, the different issues addressed by the participants, and the process of preparation of manuscripts resulting from the discussions during the workshop. PMID:22373325

Worm Watch is part of NatureWatch (first reported on in the May 31, 2002, NSDL Scout Report for Life Sciences), which is series of programs--administered collaboratively by the Canadian Nature Federation, the University of Guelph, and the Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network--that "encourage schools, community groups, individuals, naturalists, backyard enthusiasts, Scouts and Guides to engage in the monitoring of soil, air, water and other aspects of environmental quality." For students and teachers, the Worm Watch site offers a number of hands-on activities "designed to help participants learn about the role earthworms play in the ecosystem, as well as the care and handling of these organisms." Other site features include an interactive Taxonomic Key for identifying earthworm species, an animated tour of a worm's digestive system, and a Glossary. For Canadian residents, the website provides information about participating in the National Worm Survey. This site is available in both French and English.

This is the Ozone Hole Watch web site, where you can check on the latest status of the ozone layer over the South Pole. Satellite instruments monitor the ozone layer, and their data is used to create the images that depict the amount of ozone. The web site also contains links for classroom activities and instructional materials.

This Website from Gendercide Watch is devoted to raising awareness, facilitating research, and disseminating educational resources on gendercide (i.e. gender-selective mass killing). Undoubtedly the most comprehensive and up-to-date Website of its kind, Gendercide Watch features an annotated listing of current gendercide articles and reports in the news, a comprehensive discussion and definition of the phenomenon, as well as detailed case studies of gendercide occurrences in several countries and contexts, including Bangladesh, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Colombia, and gendercide elements in the Jewish Holocaust and the Armenian genocide of 1915-1916. Institutional case studies of gendercide elements in the application of penal punishment -- including the death penalty, maternal mortality, and military conscription are also posted. The site emphasizes male gendercide, reflecting the creators's "conviction that men are, indeed, generally the victims of the most severe gender-selective atrocities in such situations." An extensive, annotated list of gendercide and genocide links is given along with news releases from Gendercide Watch about current gendercide issues around the world. Human rights advocates are likely to want to bookmark this site. Gendercide Watch is "a project of the Gender Issues Education Foundation (GIEF), a registered charitable foundation based in Edmonton, Alberta."

In this group or individual activity, learners are encouraged to watch birds near home or schoolâpossibly where birds are nesting in a tree, pecking in a park, feeding from a feeder, or flying through the sky. The PDF provides drawings of the heads and bills of many kinds of birds, under categories including nectar feeding, mud probing, dip netting, scavenging, and raptorial.

We present lower/middle tropospheric column-averaged CH4 mole fraction time series measured by nine globally distributed ground-based FTIR (Fourier Transform InfraRed) remote sensing experiments of the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC). We show that these data are well representative of the tropospheric regional-scale CH4 signal, largely independent of the local small-scale signals of the boundary layer, and only weakly dependent on upper tropospheric / lower stratospheric (UTLS) CH4 variations. We estimate a typical precision for daily mean values of about 0.5% and a systematic error of about 2.5%. The theoretical assessments are complemented by an extensive empirical study. For this purpose, we use surface in-situ CH4 measurements made within the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) network and compare them to the remote sensing data. We briefly discuss different filter methods for removing the local small-scale signals from the surface in-situ datasets in order to obtain the in-situ regional-scale signals. We find good agreement between the filtered in-situ and the remote sensing data. The agreement is consistent for a variety of time scales that is interesting for CH4 source/sink research: day-to-day, monthly, and inter-annual

The weather watch activity is designed to provide instruction on how to collect weather data from on-line databases. Following completion of this activity the user will be able to look up weather conditions for any city in North America, know what radar maps are used for and how to access them, and know how to access satellite images and make estimated guesses on cloud conditions for their area from them.

Mountain Watch is a group of ongoing trail-side citizen science programs that track reproductive (flower/fruit development) plant phenology of a small set of alpine and forest plants in the U.S.'s Eastern Appalachian mountains and other northeast areas. The program encourages hikers, families, school groups and conservationists to help scientists make observations along the trails on the timing of plant flower and fruit development for inclusion in a long-term study to understand how shifts in climate trends may impact mountain flora. Resources to help teachers get started are available at the website.

Founded in 1995, Social Watch was first established to provide a global platform for non-governmental organizations to monitor and promote the effective implementation of the commitments made by national governments during the United Nations World Summit on Social Development. Since that time, the group's work has continued in the areas of monitoring poverty eradication and gender equality and users with interests in these areas will appreciate both the organization's annual report (available from the homepage) and its country-by-country reports. One very well-developed interactive graphic feature is the development indicator section of the site. Here, visitors can view representations of such indicators as female adult literacy, deforestation, and fertility across the globe, along with discrete data from each country. Additionally, many of the materials offered here are available in Spanish as well.

The Environmental Protection Agency has released data from the third annual National Health Protection Survey of Beaches for the 1999 swimming season. Based on voluntarily returned surveys, the site offers information on water quality at 1,891 beaches in the US. Using an interactive map, users can find out if the water at a selected beach is being monitored, who is responsible for monitoring, and if any advisories or closures have been issued. Initial entries for each beach include basic monitoring information, contact information, and a map. Users can also read the submitted survey form in full. Additional resources at the BEACH Watch site include summary results from the survey, a fact sheet, technical reports and reference, brochures amd pamphlets, a FAQ, and related links.

If you've ever wanted to turn your hiking skills into helpful information, the Mountain Watch section of the Appalachian Mountain Club website may be of great interest. The site is designed to turn hikers into "citizen scientists" who can "aid in the collection of data that measures the ecological health of our mountains." The site contains four areas (including "Mountain Plants" and "Mountain Weather") where visitors can submit their own recent findings and observations. First-time visitors will need to fill out the volunteer data section, and this takes just a few minutes. After this, visitors will receive a password which will allow them to report on alpine flowers, air quality, and related subjects. Visitors can also read the observations of others, and read up on their "Naturalist Blog".

Since the advent of hybridoma technology, dating back to 1975, monoclonal antibodies have become an irreplaceable diagnostic and therapeutic tool for a wide array of human diseases. During the last 15 years, several monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have been approved by FDA for cancer therapy. These mAbs are designed to (1) activate the immune system against tumor cells, (2) inhibit cancer cell-intrinsic signaling pathways, (3) bring toxins in the close proximity of cancer cells, or (4) interfere with the tumor-stroma interaction. More recently, major efforts have been made for the development of immunostimulatory mAbs that either enhance cancer-directed immune responses or limit tumor- (or therapy-) driven immunosuppression. Some of these antibodies, which are thought to facilitate tumor eradication by initiating or sustaining a tumor-specific immune response, have already entered clinical trials. In this Trial Watch, we will review and discuss the clinical progress of the most important mAbs that are have entered clinical trials after January 2008. PMID:22720209

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are an evolutionarily conserved group of enzymatically inactive, single membrane-spanning proteins that recognize a wide panel of exogenous and endogenous danger signals. Besides constituting a crucial component of the innate immune response to bacterial and viral pathogens, TLRs appear to play a major role in anticancer immunosurveillance. In line with this notion, several natural and synthetic TLR ligands have been intensively investigated for their ability to boost tumor-targeting immune responses elicited by a variety of immunotherapeutic and chemotherapeutic interventions. Three of these agents are currently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or equivalent regulatory agencies for use in cancer patients: the so-called bacillus Calmette-Guérin, monophosphoryl lipid A, and imiquimod. However, the number of clinical trials testing the therapeutic potential of both FDA-approved and experimental TLR agonists in cancer patients is stably decreasing, suggesting that drug developers and oncologists are refocusing their interest on alternative immunostimulatory agents. Here, we summarize recent findings on the use of TLR agonists in cancer patients and discuss how the clinical evaluation of FDA-approved and experimental TLR ligands has evolved since the publication of our first Trial Watch dealing with this topic. PMID:25083332

During the last two decades, a number of approaches for the activation of the immune system against cancer has been developed. These include highly specific interventions, such as monoclonal antibodies, vaccines and cell-based therapies, as well as relatively unselective strategies, such as the systemic administration of adjuvants and immunomodulatory cytokines. Cytokines constitute a huge group of proteins that, taken together, regulate not only virtually all the aspects of innate and cognate immunity, but also several other cellular and organismal functions. Cytokines operate via specific transmembrane receptors that are expressed on the plasma membrane of target cells and, depending on multiple variables, can engage autocrine, paracrine or endocrine signaling pathways. The most appropriate term for defining the cytokine network is “pleiotropic”: cytokines are produced by - and operate on - multiple, often overlapping, cell types, triggering context-depend biological outcomes as diverse as cell proliferation, chemotaxis, differentiation, inflammation, elimination of pathogens and cell death. Moreover, cytokines often induce the release of additional cytokines, thereby engaging self-amplificatory or self-inhibitory signaling cascades. In this Trial Watch, we will summarize the biological properties of cytokines and discuss the progress of ongoing clinical studies evaluating their safety and efficacy as immunomodulatory agents against cancer. PMID:22754768

Cardiac glycosides (CGs) are natural compounds sharing the ability to operate as potent inhibitors of the plasma membrane Na+/K+-ATPase, hence promoting—via an indirect mechanism—the intracellular accumulation of Ca2+ ions. In cardiomyocytes, increased intracellular Ca2+ concentrations exert prominent positive inotropic effects, that is, they increase myocardial contractility. Owing to this feature, two CGs, namely digoxin and digitoxin, have extensively been used in the past for the treatment of several cardiac conditions, including distinct types of arrhythmia as well as contractility disorders. Nowadays, digoxin is approved by the FDA and indicated for the treatment of congestive heart failure, atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter with rapid ventricular response, whereas the use of digitoxin has been discontinued in several Western countries. Recently, CGs have been suggested to exert potent antineoplastic effects, notably as they appear to increase the immunogenicity of dying cancer cells. In this Trial Watch, we summarize the mechanisms that underpin the unsuspected anticancer potential of CGs and discuss the progress of clinical studies that have evaluated/are evaluating the safety and efficacy of CGs for oncological indications. PMID:23525565

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are prototypic pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) best known for their ability to activate the innate immune system in response to conserved microbial components such as lipopolysaccharide and double-stranded RNA. Accumulating evidence indicates that the function of TLRs is not restricted to the elicitation of innate immune responses against invading pathogens. TLRs have indeed been shown to participate in tissue repair and injury-induced regeneration as well as in adaptive immune responses against cancer. In particular, TLR4 signaling appears to be required for the efficient processing and cross-presentation of cell-associated tumor antigens by dendritic cells, which de facto underlie optimal therapeutic responses to some anticancer drugs. Thus, TLRs constitute prominent therapeutic targets for the activation/intensification of anticancer immune responses. In line with this notion, long-used preparations such as the Coley toxin (a mixture of killed Streptococcus pyogenes and Serratia marcescens bacteria) and the bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG, an attenuated strain of Mycobacterium bovis originally developed as a vaccine against tuberculosis), both of which have been associated with consistent anticancer responses, potently activate TLR2 and TLR4 signaling. Today, besides BCG, only one TLR agonist is FDA-approved for therapeutic use in cancer patients: imiquimod. In this Trial Watch, we will briefly present the role of TLRs in innate and cognate immunity and discuss the progress of clinical studies evaluating the safety and efficacy of experimental TLR agonists as immunostimulatory agents for oncological indications. PMID:22934262

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) have first been characterized for their capacity to detect conserved microbial components like lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and double-stranded RNA, resulting in the elicitation of potent (innate) immune responses against invading pathogens. More recently, TLRs have also been shown to promote the activation of the cognate immune system against cancer cells. Today, only three TLR agonists are approved by FDA for use in humans: the bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL) and imiquimod. BCG (an attenuated strain of Mycobacterium bovis) is mainly used as a vaccine against tuberculosis, but also for the immunotherapy of in situ bladder carcinoma. MPL (derived from the LPS of Salmonella minnesota) is included in the formulation of Cervarix®, a vaccine against human papillomavirus-16 and -18. Imiquimod (a synthetic imidazoquinoline) is routinely employed for actinic keratosis, superficial basal cell carcinoma, and external genital warts (condylomata acuminata). In this Trial Watch, we will summarize the results of recently completed clinical trials and discuss the progress of ongoing studies that have evaluated/are evaluating FDA-approved TLR agonists as off-label medications for cancer therapy. PMID:23162757

Oncolytic virotherapy is emerging as a promising approach for the treatment of several neoplasms. The term “oncolytic viruses” is generally employed to indicate naturally occurring or genetically engineered attenuated viral particles that cause the demise of malignant cells while sparing their non-transformed counterparts. From a conceptual standpoint, oncolytic viruses differ from so-called “oncotropic viruses” in that only the former are able to kill cancer cells, even though both display a preferential tropism for malignant tissues. Of note, such a specificity can originate at several different steps of the viral cycle, including the entry of virions (transductional specificity) as well as their intracellular survival and replication (post-transcriptional and transcriptional specificity). During the past two decades, a large array of replication-competent and replication-incompetent oncolytic viruses has been developed and engineered to express gene products that would specifically promote the death of infected (cancer) cells. However, contrarily to long-standing beliefs, the antineoplastic activity of oncolytic viruses is not a mere consequence of the cytopathic effect, i.e., the lethal outcome of an intense, productive viral infection, but rather involves the elicitation of an antitumor immune response. In line with this notion, oncolytic viruses genetically modified to drive the local production of immunostimulatory cytokines exert more robust therapeutic effects than their non-engineered counterparts. Moreover, the efficacy of oncolytic virotherapy is significantly improved by some extent of initial immunosuppression (facilitating viral replication and spread) followed by the administration of immunostimulatory molecules (boosting antitumor immune responses). In this Trial Watch, we will discuss the results of recent clinical trials that have evaluated/are evaluating the safety and antineoplastic potential of oncolytic virotherapy. PMID:23894720

Prophylactic vaccination constitutes one of the most prominent medical achievements of history. This concept was first demonstrated by the pioneer work of Edward Jenner, dating back to the late 1790s, after which an array of preparations that confer life-long protective immunity against several infectious agents has been developed. The ensuing implementation of nation-wide vaccination programs has de facto abated the incidence of dreadful diseases including rabies, typhoid, cholera and many others. Among all, the most impressive result of vaccination campaigns is surely represented by the eradication of natural smallpox infection, which was definitively certified by the WHO in 1980. The idea of employing vaccines as anticancer interventions was first theorized in the 1890s by Paul Ehrlich and William Coley. However, it soon became clear that while vaccination could be efficiently employed as a preventive measure against infectious agents, anticancer vaccines would have to (1) operate as therapeutic, rather than preventive, interventions (at least in the vast majority of settings), and (2) circumvent the fact that tumor cells often fail to elicit immune responses. During the past 30 y, along with the recognition that the immune system is not irresponsive to tumors (as it was initially thought) and that malignant cells express tumor-associated antigens whereby they can be discriminated from normal cells, considerable efforts have been dedicated to the development of anticancer vaccines. Some of these approaches, encompassing cell-based, DNA-based and purified component-based preparations, have already been shown to exert conspicuous anticancer effects in cohorts of patients affected by both hematological and solid malignancies. In this Trial Watch, we will summarize the results of recent clinical trials that have evaluated/are evaluating purified peptides or full-length proteins as therapeutic interventions against cancer. PMID:23264902

The foundation of modern vaccinology dates back to the 1790s, when the English physician Edward Jenner uncovered the tremendous medical potential of prophylactic vaccination. Jenner’s work ignited a wave of nationwide vaccination campaigns abating the incidence of multiple life-threatening infectious diseases and culminating with the eradication of natural smallpox virus, which was definitively certified by the WHO in 1980. The possibility of using vaccines against cancer was first proposed at the end of the 19th century by Paul Ehrlich and William Coley. However, it was not until the 1990s that such a hypothesis began to be intensively investigated, following the realization that the immune system is not completely unresponsive to tumors and that neoplastic cells express immunogenic tumor-associated antigens (TAAs). Nowadays, anticancer vaccines are rapidly moving from the bench to the bedside, and a few prophylactic and therapeutic preparations have already been approved by FDA for use in humans. In this setting, one interesting approach is constituted by DNA vaccines, i.e., TAA-encoding circularized DNA constructs, often of bacterial origin, that are delivered to patients as such or by means of specific vectors, including (but not limited to) liposomal preparations, nanoparticles, bacteria and viruses. The administration of DNA vaccines is most often performed via the intramuscular or subcutaneous route and is expected to cause (1) the endogenous synthesis of the TAA by myocytes and/or resident antigen-presenting cells; (2) the presentation of TAA-derived peptides on the cell surface, in association with MHC class I molecules; and (3) the activation of potentially therapeutic tumor-specific immune responses. In this Trial Watch, we will summarize the results of recent clinical trials that have evaluated/are evaluating DNA vaccines as therapeutic interventions against cancer. PMID:23734328

Dendritic cells (DCs) occupy a central position in the immune system, orchestrating a wide repertoire of responses that span from the development of self-tolerance to the elicitation of potent cellular and humoral immunity. Accordingly, DCs are involved in the etiology of conditions as diverse as infectious diseases, allergic and autoimmune disorders, graft rejection and cancer. During the last decade, several methods have been developed to load DCs with tumor-associated antigens, ex vivo or in vivo, in the attempt to use them as therapeutic anticancer vaccines that would elicit clinically relevant immune responses. While this has not always been the case, several clinical studies have demonstrated that DC-based anticancer vaccines are capable of activating tumor-specific immune responses that increase overall survival, at least in a subset of patients. In 2010, this branch of clinical research has culminated with the approval by FDA of a DC-based therapeutic vaccine (sipuleucel-T, Provenge®) for use in patients with asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer. Intense research efforts are currently dedicated to the identification of the immunological features of patients that best respond to DC-based anticancer vaccines. This knowledge may indeed lead to personalized combination strategies that would extend the benefit of DC-based immunotherapy to a larger patient population. In addition, widespread enthusiasm has been generated by the results of the first clinical trials based on in vivo DC targeting, an approach that holds great promises for the future of DC-based immunotherapy. In this Trial Watch, we will summarize the results of recently completed clinical trials and discuss the progress of ongoing studies that have evaluated/are evaluating DC-based interventions for cancer therapy. PMID:23170259

Solid tumors are constituted of a variety of cellular components, including bona fide malignant cells as well as endothelial, structural and immune cells. On one hand, the tumor stroma exerts major pro-tumorigenic and immunosuppressive functions, reflecting the capacity of cancer cells to shape the microenvironment to satisfy their own metabolic and immunological needs. On the other hand, there is a component of tumor-infiltrating leucocytes (TILs) that has been specifically recruited in the attempt to control tumor growth. Along with the recognition of the critical role played by the immune system in oncogenesis, tumor progression and response to therapy, increasing attention has been attracted by the potential prognostic and/or predictive role of the immune infiltrate in this setting. Data from large clinical studies demonstrate indeed that a robust infiltration of neoplastic lesions by specific immune cell populations, including (but not limited to) CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes, Th1 and Th17 CD4+ T cells, natural killer cells, dendritic cells, and M1 macrophages constitutes an independent prognostic indicator in several types of cancer. Conversely, high levels of intratumoral CD4+CD25+FOXP3+ regulatory T cells, Th2 CD4+ T cells, myeloid-derived suppressor cells, M2 macrophages and neutrophils have frequently been associated with dismal prognosis. So far, only a few studies have addressed the true predictive potential of TILs in cancer patients, generally comforting the notion that—at least in some clinical settings—the immune infiltrate can reliably predict if a specific patient will respond to therapy or not. In this Trial Watch, we will summarize the results of clinical trials that have evaluated/are evaluating the prognostic and predictive value of the immune infiltrate in the context of solid malignancies. PMID:23243596

We present lower/middle tropospheric column-averaged CH4 mole fraction time series measured by nine globally distributed ground-based FTIR (Fourier transform infrared) remote sensing experiments of the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC). We show that these data are well representative of the tropospheric regional-scale CH4 signal, largely independent of the local surface small-scale signals, and only weakly dependent on upper tropospheric/lower stratospheric (UTLS) CH4 variations. In order to achieve the weak dependency on the UTLS, we use an a posteriori correction method. We estimate a typical precision for daily mean values of about 0.5% and a systematic error of about 2.5%. The theoretical assessments are complemented by an extensive empirical study. For this purpose, we use surface in situ CH4 measurements made within the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) network and compare them to the remote sensing data. We briefly discuss different filter methods for removing the local small-scale signals from the surface in situ data sets in order to obtain the in situ regional-scale signals. We find good agreement between the filtered in situ and the remote sensing data. The agreement is consistent for a variety of timescales that are interesting for CH4 source/sink research: day-to-day, monthly, and inter-annual. The comparison study confirms our theoretical estimations and proves that the NDACC FTIR measurements can provide valuable data for investigating the cycle of CH4.

The performance of 20 European laboratories involved in long-term non-methane hydrocarbon (NMHC) measurements within the framework of Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) and European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP) was assessed with respect to the ACTRIS (Aerosols, Clouds, and Trace gases Research InfraStructure Network) and GAW data quality objectives (DQOs). Compared to previous intercomparisons the DQOs of ACTRIS are much more demanding with deviations to a reference value of less than 5% and repeatability of better than 2% for mole fractions above 0.1 nmol mol-1. The participants were asked to measure both a 30 component NMHC mixture in nitrogen (NMHC_N2) at approximately 1 nmol mol-1 and whole air (NMHC_air), following a standardised operation procedure including zero- and calibration gas measurements. Furthermore, they had to report details on their instruments and they were asked to assess measurement uncertainties. The NMHCs were analysed either by gas chromatography-flame ionisation detection or gas chromatography-mass spectrometer methods. Most systems performed well for the NMHC_N2 measurements (88% of the reported values were within the GAW DQOs and even 58% within the ACTRIS DQOs). For NMHC_air generally more frequent and larger deviations to the assigned values were observed compared to NMHC_N2 (77% of the reported values were within the GAW DQOs, but only 48% within the ACTRIS DQOs). Important contributors to the poorer performance in NMHC_air compared to NMHC_N2 were a more complex matrix and a larger span of NMHC mole fractions (0.03-2.5 nmol mol-1). Issues, which affected both NMHC mixtures, are the usage of direct vs. two-step calibration, breakthrough of C2-C3 hydrocarbons, blank values in zero-gas measurements (especially for those systems using a Nafion® Dryer), adsorptive losses of aromatic compounds, and insufficient chromatographic resolution. Essential for high-quality results are experienced operators, a comprehensive quality assurance and quality control, well characterised systems, and sufficient man-power to operate the systems and evaluate the data.

Yellowstone River Watch seeks to expand its monitoring and education efforts throughout the Yellowstone River Basin by actively recruiting and training new teacher members. Yellowstone River Watch also seeks to advance existing school programs by offering quality assurance/quali...

As the situation in Darfur continues to unfold, a number of media outlets have continued to investigate the United Nations involvement in the region. The journalists and researchers at the PBS program Frontline embarked on their own investigation into the subject. Along the way, they explored China's economic interests in the region, the actions of the Security Council, and those of various UN member nations. Visitors to this site can watch the documentary program in its entirety, and they can also read essays on various aspects of Darfur written by activists, historians, and policy experts. Other features on the site include a map of the region, a list of suggested readings and links, and journal entries from the show's producer, Neil Doherty.

Blistering summer temperatures have brought drought conditions across large sections of the United States, especially in the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, and upper Ohio Valley regions. This new site from the US Geological Survey (USGS) offers a number of drought resources. These include the latest condition reports for selected states and realtime streamflow data from the mid-Atlantic region; links to current information from the National Weather Service and the Department of Agriculture; drought definitions; and notes from a recent Congressional Briefing on drought in the Middle Atlantic states. The last item includes a number of graphs and streamflow maps. Numerous links to related sites and sources for more information are provided throughout Drought Watch.

The Neighborhood Environmental Watch Network (NEWNET) is a regional network of environmental monitoring stations and a data archival center that supports collaboration between communities, industry, and government agencies to solve environmental problems. The stations provide local displays of measurements for the public and transmit measurements via satellite to a central site for archival and analysis. Station managers are selected from the local community and trained to support the stations. Archived data and analysis tools are available to researchers, educational institutions, industrial collaborators, and the public across the nation through a communications network. Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Environmental Protection Agency have developed a NEWNET pilot program for the Department of Energy. The pilot program supports monitoring stations in Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, and California. Additional stations are being placed in Colorado and New Mexico. Pilot stations take radiological and meteorological measurements. Other measurements are possible by exchanging sensors.

As part of the Forest Frontiers Initiative (described in the September 30, 1998 Scout Report for Science & Engineering), the World Resources Institute (WRI) has launched Global Forest Watch, an ambitious, international effort to assemble and provide "objective, quality data" on the state of the world's forests. The site's main function is to introduce viewers to the project, calling attention to regional centers (Central Africa, North America, Southeast Asia, South America, and Russia), and providing "comprehensive information on logging, mining, and other development activities within and around frontier forests as, or before, it happens." A brochure (English or French) can be downloaded (.pdf format) in the Resources section, and the Newsroom will serve as a spotlight for recent information.

Project FeederWatch is a winter-long survey of birds that visit feeders at backyards, nature centers, community areas, and other locales in North America. FeederWatchers periodically count the birds they see at their feeders from November through early April and send their counts to Project FeederWatch. FeederWatch data help scientists track broadscale movements of winter bird populations and long-term trends in bird distribution and abundance. Anyone with an interest in birds can participate. FeederWatch is conducted by people of all skill levels and backgrounds, including children, families, individuals, classrooms, retired persons, youth groups, nature centers, and bird clubs

For centuries, Swiss firms manufactured and sold precision watches and were the undisputed leaders in timekeeping. All this came to an abrupt end when, in the mid-1970s, the Japanese began to make reliable digital watches at a fraction of the cost of the expensive, labor-intensive Swiss product. In 1983, Switzerland answered with the introduction…

A climatology of new particle formation (NPF) events at high altitude in the subtropical North Atlantic is presented. A 4-year data set (June 2008-June 2012), which includes number size distributions (10-600 nm), reactive gases (SO2, NOx, and O3), several components of solar radiation and meteorological parameters, measured at Izaña Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) observatory (2373 m above sea level; Tenerife, Canary Islands) was analysed. NPF is associated with the transport of gaseous precursors from the boundary layer by orographic buoyant upward flows that perturb the low free troposphere during daytime. On average, 30% of the days contained an NPF event. Mean values of the formation and growth rates during the study period were 0.46 cm-3 s-1 and 0.42 nm h-1, correspondingly. There is a clearly marked NPF season (May-August), when these events account for 50-60% of the days per month. Monthly mean values of the formation and growth rates exhibit higher values in this season, 0.49-0.92 cm-3 s-1 and 0.48-0.58 nm h-1, respectively. During NPF events, SO2, UV radiation and upslope winds showed higher values than during non-events. The overall data set indicates that SO2 plays a key role as precursor, although other species seem to contribute during some periods. Condensation of sulfuric acid vapour accounts for most of the measured particle growth during most of the year (~70%), except for some periods. In May, the highest mean growth rates (~0.6 nm h-1) and the lowest contribution of sulfuric acid (~13%) were measured, suggesting a significant involvement of other condensing vapours. The SO2 availability seems also to be the most influencing parameter in the year-to-year variability in the frequency of NPF events. The condensation sink showed similar features to other mountain sites, showing high values during NPF events. Summertime observations, when Izaña is within the Saharan Air Layer, suggest that dust particles may play a significant role acting as coagulation sink of freshly formed nucleation particles. The contribution of dust particles to the condensation sink of sulfuric acid vapours seems to be modest (~8% as average). Finally, we identified a set of NPF events in which two nucleation modes, which may evolve at different rates, occur simultaneously and for which further investigations are necessary.

The goal of the BrowserWatch site is to keep you current on the newest developments in Web browsers. It contains a news section offering a variety of newsgroup postings about the latest in browsers; the BrowserWatch Browser Listing, with over 60 browsers, platforms supported, and links to their sites; a "Plug-in Plaza", with a list of plug-ins, their availability by platform, what they do, and links to download sites; and statistics on which browsers have visited the BrowserWatch page. http://browserwatch.internet.com/ For more information on browsers, see the Scout Toolkit browser page. webtools/browsers.html

AccessWatch, provided by David Maher, is a shareware utility that provides a regularly updated summary of WWW server hits and accesses, and gives a graphical representation of available statistics. It generates statistics for hourly server load, page demand, accesses by domain, and accesses by host. AccessWatch can run on Unix or Windows NT servers. The AccessWatch page provides sample output, a FAQ, installation instructions, and the Perl script that makes the product work. It is free for government, non-commercial home, and academic use. See the license agreement for more information.

Audubon has launched this site identifying North American bird species that are "faced with population decline, limited geographic range, and/or threats such as habitat loss on their breeding and wintering grounds." Compiled by Partners in Flight, the list is provided as a citizen science initiative to shift conservation agendas away from "reactive, last-minute rescue attempts" and towards preventative measures. In addition to the continental WatchList, the site posts state WatchLists. To access a state list, simply click on the US map (or state name) to browse the list of bird species or read about the criteria used to establish the list. Each highlighted species account includes a color photograph, common and scientific name, and indicators of relative abundance, distribution, threats to breeding and non-breeding ranges, and population trends. The site also includes a FAQ section, Five Ways to Help WatchList Birds, and Kids WatchList Action.

USGS biologist Dorene MacCoy and a group of citizen volunteers prepare to collect and record water-quality data as part of the October 27 Watershed Watch citizen science event on the Boise River in Boise, ID....

CyberWatch has been funded as an Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Regional Center of Excellence since 2005 (NSF Award Nos. 0501828 and 0902747) and has expanded its membership to 94 colleges in 29 states. With this award, the center transitions to an even broader scope as an ATE National Center of Excellence.The mission of CyberWatch is "to advance cybersecurity education by leading collaborative efforts to strengthen the national cybersecurity workforce." The center is building a culture of collaboration among colleges and universities to:* promote the growth of cybersecurity education programs nationally, especially in community colleges;* build program and faculty capacity by sharing replicable models of excellence;* promote the cybersecurity profession through a national dissemination program;* strengthen student capacity and expand pathways to cybersecurity careers; and* support research on cybersecurity education.By promoting "models of excellence," CyberWatch is expanding high-quality cybersecurity programs at community colleges around the nation. The center is mentoring colleges to achieve the Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education - 2 Year (CAE2Y) designation; increasing students' awareness of cybersecurity careers and their participation in cybersecurity competitions at the K-12 and college levels; growing the number of faculty able to teach cybersecurity topics; assisting with curriculum development at all levels; expanding the knowledge base of what works (and what does not) in cybersecurity education at all levels; and continuing effective dissemination mechanisms, including the center's Web sites, newsletters, reports, conference presentations, and workshops and institutes, all of which advertise the center's services to a broad community.As a national center, CyberWatch is leading the effort to bring cybersecurity education at community colleges to the forefront of the national dialogue, thereby helping employers across the nation to meet a critical workforce need.

Two-dimensional wind-tunnel tests were conducted to determine effectiveness of spoilers applied to the GA(W)-1 airfoil. Tests of several spoiler configurations show adequate control effectiveness with flap nested. It is found that providing a vent path allowing lower surface air to escape to the upper surface as the spoiler opens alleviates control reversal and hysteresis tendencies. Spoiler cross-sectional shape variations generally have a modest influence on control characteristics. A series of comparative tests of vortex generators applied to the (GA-W)-1 airfoil show that triangular planform vortex generators are superior to square planform vortex generators of the same span.

This metasite, by Rauno Lauhakangas of the University of Helsinki, Finland, includes a myriad of whale-related topics, some of which are scientific. The research-oriented sections include: Oceanographic Research (a collection of links to research sites, i.e. The Radio Acoustic Positioning and Telemetry Network -- a useful technique for monitoring whale/fish behavior); Cetacean's Rights (a section providing examples of legislation regulating whale-watching in Argentina, New Zealand, and elsewhere); and Bioacoustics (a section of links dedicated to Cetacean Research Technology). Educators will find useful information and compelling photographic images in the Cetacean Encyclopaedia (an introduction to whale species); Cetacean Pictures; and Virtual Whale Watching (a high-tech, state-of-the-art introduction to virtual whale-watching).

of software expands the small field of view that traditional pan-tilt-zoom security cameras offer. When the viewspaces of all the security cameras in an area overlap. Then it can determine the geocameras are watching you New surveillance camera being developed by Ohio

In this activity, learners observe the moon each night for a month and draw their observations in a Moon Watch Log. After twenty-nine days of observations, learners put the pages together to create a flip book to see the Moon pass through all its phases in just a few seconds.

The disclosure is directed to a wristwatch dosimeter utilizing a CdTe detector, a microprocessor and an audio and/or visual alarm. The dosimeter is entirely housable within a conventional digital watch case having an additional aperture enabling the detector to receive radiation.

BirdWatchingDaily.com is the website of BirdWatching Magazine, but does such a good job of providing interactive features and repurposing magazine content that even subscribers will find additional things to like at the site. One example is Hotspots Near You, where beginner birders can find the best places to find birds near their homes. There are 10 choices under Getting Started, including What to do if you find a baby bird, Birdfeeding basics, Facts about birds, and Basics of bird-friendly yards. The Special features section re-prints page spreads from the magazine that can be read online or downloaded as a PDF. Armchair birdwatchers will enjoy the photo galleries, and anyone can submit photos for the Photo of the Week Contest.

Built on a research project at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, CoralWatch has developed a cheap, simple, non-invasive method for the monitoring of coral bleaching, and assessment of coral health. In the field, users simply use the Coral Health Chart to compare colors of corals with colors on the chart and record matching codes. Students submit their data and can view data from reefs around the world. Virtual components are also available.

Bumble Bee Watch is a collaborative effort to track and conserve North America's bumble bees. This citizen science project allows for individuals to upload photos of bumble bees to start a virtual bumble bee collection, identify the bumble bees in their photos, have identifications verified by experts, help researchers determine the status and conservation needs of bumble bees, help locate rare or endangered populations of bumble bees, learn about bumble bees, their ecology, and ongoing conservation efforts, and connect with other citizen scientists.

In preparation for the 1985 to 1986 apparition of Halley's Comet, the International Halley Watch (IHW) has initiated a comprehensive program to simulate, encourage, and coordinate scientific observation of the apparition. The observing groups with which the IHW plans to interact are discussed and the ground based observing nets are described in detail. An outline of the history of observations of Halley's Comet and a synopsis of comet properties and physics are included.

Search Engine Watch is a resource designed to provide information to two distinct groups of users: web professionals (commercial webmasters, site designers and promoters), and web searchers. The Webmaster's Guide to Search Engines contains information on search engine design, ranking, and tips on how to make sure your site receives a high relevance rating. Search Engine Facts and Fun contains information on the major search services and links to selected search engine tutorials and ratings articles, among other features.

A nonparametric and general method of linkage analysis has been developed. The repeated measure strategy of Speilman has been adapted to the conditional logistic function to establish linkage by stepwise modeling of transmission from parent to progeny. No foreknowledges of genetic association, linkage nor mode of inheritance is required. The effects at multiple loci are easily modelled. Such logistic transmission models have been developed from GAW5 data. Serology at HLA-DR is more closely linked to the phenotype than are the other GAW5 HLA loci with coefficients at DR2 of -1.4 (S.E. of 0.4), DR3 of 1.1 (S.E. of 0.2), and DR4 of 1.2 (S.E. of 0.2). Relative to the random transmission of alleles, the model achieves a {chi}{sub 3}{sup 2} of 114 (p<10{sup -24}). From the GAW5 subset with insulin gene data, models incorporating either the insulin gene 1 or the 3 alleles are similar. Overall models from this GAW5 subset are also consistent with genetic heterogeneity at HLA and the insulin gene (e.g., {chi}{sub 1}{sup 2} for improvement > 4.6, overall model {chi}{sub 4}{sup 2} = 71, p=10{sup -18}). Properties of the logistic transmission model suggest this approach will be useful when linkage is sought over small recombination distances, when resistance and susceptibility alleles coexist at a locus, and when a complex mode of inheritance is suspected.

What is happening in forests right now? You can find out with this amazing resource from the World Resources Institute. This interactive map of the world includes remarkable specialty features that allow users to learn about tree cover loss over time, along with some success stories from around the world. In short the Global Forest Watch (GFW) is a "dynamic online forest monitoring and alert system that empowers people everywhere to better manage forests." After first agreeing to terms of use, visitors to the site can navigate to the Map tab to use a sophisticated set of tools that track tree cover loss and gain from 2000 to the present. Additionally, users can toggle on and off various themes such as "Forest Use" and "Conversation" as they see fit. The Stories area is a real delight as it allows users to learn about the folks who are working to conserve and enhance existing forested areas from Ecuador to Egypt.

Executive PayWatch is provided by the AFL-CIO, a trade union group. The site aims to be a "working family's guide to monitoring and curtailing the excessive salaries, bonuses and perks in CEO compensation packages." Visitors can conduct a comparison of CEO and worker pay increases, and evaluate the reasons given for high CEO salary increases. There is also a database of the salaries of the CEOs of Standard & Poor (S&P 500) corporations. Users can find instructions on how to obtain details of CEO compensation for companies not in the S&P 500 from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) web site. A guide on what actions workers can take to restrain CEO pay increases rounds up the site.

Measurements of flow fields with low speed turbulent boundary layers were made for the GA(W)-1 airfoil with a 0.30 c Fowler flap deflected 40 deg at angles of attack of 2.7 deg, 7.7 deg, and 12.8 deg, at a Reynolds number of 2.2 million, and a Mach number of 0.13. Details of velocity and pressure fields associated with the airfoil flap combination are presented for cases of narrow, optimum and wide slot gaps. Extensive flow field turbulence surveys were also conducted employing hot-film anemometry. For the optimum gap setting, the boundaries of the regions of flow reversal within the wake were determined by this technique for two angles of attack. Local skin friction distributions for the basic airfoil and the airfoil with flap (optimum gap) were obtained using the razor blade technique.

. Two large collaborative efforts aimed at characterizing the human microbiome have concluded individuals and was discussed in a previous Genome Watch2 . The Human Microbiome Project (HMP) focused mainly have been the focus of most microbiome studies, but it has also been sug- gested that fungi, which

IT is to be hoped that the absurd dial of which you give a drawing will not come into general use. Why not adopt the convenient shape which for more than a century has been in use on the continent for some jewelled watches?:-A is the shape of the visible dial; c is the minute hand; D is the second-hand

In tennis as well as in other racket/paddle sports, simply watching the ball does not guarantee success in hitting the ball to the desired location. Teachers and coaches should teach players to integrate available visual, spatial, and kinesthetic information. Several drills for good ball contact are outlined. (IAH)

of repository models and systems are available and used by a variety of communities. They can take many forms and carry out many different functions. This technology watch paper provides an introduction to the features and functionality of the Fedora digital...

of repository models and systems are available and used by a variety of communities. They can take many forms and carry out many different functions. This technology watch paper provides an introduction to the features and functionality of the EPrints digital...

The objectives of the Technology Watch process are to identify emerging, high-impact technologies that augment current ExMC development efforts, and to work with academia, industry, and other government agencies to accelerate the development of medical care and research capabilities for the mitigation of potential health issues that could occur during space exploration missions. The establishment of collaborations with these entities is beneficial to technology development, assessment and/or insertion. Such collaborations also further NASA s goal to provide a safe and healthy environment for human exploration. The Tech Watch project addresses requirements and capabilities identified by knowledge and technology gaps that are derived from a discrete set of medical conditions that are most likely to occur on exploration missions. These gaps are addressed through technology readiness level assessments, market surveys, collaborations and distributed innovation opportunities. Ultimately, these gaps need to be closed with respect to exploration missions, and may be achieved through technology development projects. Information management is a key aspect to this process where Tech Watch related meetings, research articles, collaborations and partnerships are tracked by the HRP s Exploration Medical Capabilities (ExMC) Element. In 2011, ExMC will be introducing the Tech Watch external website and evidence wiki that will provide access to ExMC technology and knowledge gaps, technology needs and requirements documents.

Watching video online is becoming increasingly popular, and new video streaming technologies have the potential to transform video-watching from a passive, isolating experience into an active, socially engaging experience. However, the viability of an active social experience is unclear: both chatting and watching video require attention, and may interfere with one another and detract from the experience. In this paper,

Watching video online is becoming increasingly popular, and new video streaming technologies have the potential to transform video watching from a passive, isolating experience into an active, socially engaging experience. However, the viability of an active social experience is unclear: both chatting and watching video require attention, and may interfere with one another and detract from the experience. In this

The Boreal Forest Watch program was initiated in the fall of 1994 to act as an educational outreach program for the BOREAS project in both the BOREAS Southern Study Area (SSA) and Northern Study Area (NSA). Boreal Forest Watch (13FW) was designed to introduce area high school teachers and their students to the types of research activities occurring as part of the BOREAS study of Canadian boreal forests. Several teacher training workshops were offered to teachers from central and northern Saskatchewan and northern Manitoba between May, 1995 and February, 1999; teachers were introduced to techniques for involving their students in on-going environmental monitoring studies within local forested stands. Boreal Forest Watch is an educational outreach program which brings high school students and research scientists together to study the forest and foster a sustainable relationship between people and the planetary life-support system we depend upon. Personnel from the University of New Hampshire (UNH), Complex Systems Research Center (CSRC), with the cooperation from the Prince Albert National Park (PANP), instituted this program to help teachers within the BOREAS Study Areas offer real science research experience to their students. The program has the potential to complement large research projects, such as BOREAS, by providing useful student- collected data to scientists. Yet, the primary goal of BFW is to allow teachers and students to experience a hands-on, inquiry-based approach to leaming science - emulating the process followed by research scientists. In addition to introducing these teachers to on-going BOREAS research, the other goals of the BFW program were to: 1) to introduce authentic science topics and methods to students and teachers through hands-on, field-based activities; and, 2) to build a database of student-collected environmental monitoring data for future global change studies in the boreal region.

Millions of women around the world live with disabilities, and this site from the United Nations' Women Watch initiative provides information on this particular group of individuals. On this site, visitors can learn about the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities and also look over a related fact sheet about girls and women with disabilities. Visitors should also look over the "Resources" section, which includes links to online materials from other UN websites, including the Regional Commission for Asia and the Pacific and the World Health Organization. Finally, visitors can also watch a webcast of the United Nations committee Ad Hoc Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The Technology Watch (Tech Watch) project is a NASA endeavor conducted under the Human Research Programs (HRP) Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) element, and focusing on ExMC technology gaps. The project involves several NASA centers, including the Johnson Space Center (JSC), Glenn Research Center (GRC), Ames Research Center (ARC), and the Langley Research Center (LaRC). The objective of Tech Watch is to identify emerging, high-impact technologies that augment current NASA HRP technology development efforts. Identifying such technologies accelerates the development of medical care and research capabilities for the mitigation of potential health issues encountered during human space exploration missions. The aim of this process is to leverage technologies developed by academia, industry and other government agencies and to identify the effective utilization of NASA resources to maximize the HRP return on investment. The establishment of collaborations with these entities is beneficial to technology development, assessment and/or insertion and further NASAs goal to provide a safe and healthy environment for human exploration. In 2011, the major focus areas for Tech Watch included information dissemination, education outreach and public accessibility to technology gaps and gap reports. The dissemination of information was accomplished through site visits to research laboratories and/or companies, and participation at select conferences where Tech Watch objectives and technology gaps were presented. Presentation of such material provided researchers with insights on NASA ExMC needs for space exploration and an opportunity to discuss potential areas of common interest. The second focus area, education outreach, was accomplished via two mechanisms. First, several senior student projects, each related to an ExMC technology gap, were sponsored by the various NASA centers. These projects presented ExMC related technology problems firsthand to collegiate laboratories. Second, a RASC-AL (Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts Academic Linkage) topic for FY12 was developed for medical systems and astronaut health under the Human-Focused Mars Mission Systems and Technologies theme. Announcement of the competition was made to the public in August 2011. Finally, critical Tech Watch information was prepared for public release in the form of gap reports. Complementing the ExMC technology gaps in the public domain, gap reports were generated, reviewed and revised through a series of technical, medical and subject matter expert reviews before approval for public release. An important vehicle for the public release of such documents was development of the ExMC wiki website, which will continue to be populated with gap reports and relevant documents throughout the upcoming year.

Anatomy of a Planet-Forming Disc around a Star More Massive than the Sun With the VISIR instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers have mapped the disc around a star more massive than the Sun. The very extended and flared disc most likely contains enough gas and dust to spawn planets. It appears as a precursor of debris discs such as the one around Vega-like stars and thus provides the rare opportunity to witness the conditions prevailing prior to or during planet formation. "Planets form in massive, gaseous and dusty proto-planetary discs that surround nascent stars. This process must be rather ubiquitous as more than 200 planets have now been found around stars other than the Sun," said Pierre-Olivier Lagage, from CEA Saclay (France) and leader of the team that carried out the observations. "However, very little is known about these discs, especially those around stars more massive than the Sun. Such stars are much more luminous and could have a large influence on their disc, possibly quickly destroying the inner part." The astronomers used the VISIR instrument [1] on ESO's Very Large Telescope to map in the infrared the disc surrounding the young star HD 97048. With an age of a few million years [2], HD 97048 belongs to the Chameleon I dark cloud, a stellar nursery 600 light-years away. The star is 40 times more luminous than our Sun and is 2.5 times as massive. The astronomers could only have achieved such a detailed view due to the high angular resolution offered by an 8-metre size telescope in the infrared, reaching a resolution of 0.33 arcsecond. They discovered a very large disc, at least 12 times more extended than the orbit of the farthest planet in the Solar System, Neptune. The observations suggest the disc to be flared. "This is the first time such a structure, predicted by some theoretical models, is imaged around a massive star," said Lagage. ESO PR Photo 36/06 ESO PR Photo 36/06 A Flared Proto-Planetary Disc Such a geometry can only be explained if the disc contains a large amount of gas, in this case, at least as much as 10 times the mass of Jupiter. It should also contain more than 50 Earth masses in dust. The dust mass derived here is more than thousand times larger than what is observed in debris discs and Kuiper belt-like structures found around older, 'Vega-like' stars, such as Beta Pictoris, Vega, Fomalhaut and HR 4796. The dust around these stars is thought to be produced by collisions of larger bodies. The dust mass observed around HD 97048 is similar to the mass invoked for the (undetected) parent bodies in the more evolved systems. HD 97048's disc is thus most likely a precursor of debris discs observed around older stars. "From the structure of the disc, we infer that planetary embryos may be present in the inner part of the disc," said Lagage. "We are planning follow-up observations at higher angular resolution with ESO's VLT interferometer in order to probe these regions." A video, made by the CEA, is also available. More Information The scientists report their discovery in the 28 September issue of Science Express, the rapid online publication service of the journal Science: "Anatomy of a flaring proto-planetary disc around a young intermediate-mass star", by P.-O. Lagage et al. The team is composed of Pierre-Olivier Lagage, Coralie Doucet, and Eric Pantin, (CEA Saclay, France), Sébastien Charnoz (Paris 7 Denis Diderot University), Emilie Habart (Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, Orsay, France), Gaspard Duchêne, François Ménard, and Christophe Pinte (Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Grenoble, France), and Jan-Willem Pel (Groningen University, The Netherlands).

The Technology Watch (Tech Watch) project is a NASA project that is operated under the Human Research Programs (HRP) Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) element, and focuses on ExMC technology gaps. The project coordinates the efforts of several NASA centers, including the Johnson Space Center (JSC), Glenn Research Center (GRC), Ames Research Center (ARC), and the Langley Research Center (LaRC). The objective of Tech Watch is to identify emerging, high-impact technologies that augment current NASA HRP technology development efforts. Identifying such technologies accelerates the development of medical care and research capabilities for the mitigation of potential health issues encountered during human space exploration missions. The aim of this process is to leverage technologies developed by academia, industry and other government agencies and to identify the effective utilization of NASA resources to maximize the HRP return on investment. The establishment of collaborations with these entities is beneficial to technology development, assessment and/or insertion and further NASAs goal to provide a safe and healthy environment for human exploration. In 2012, the Tech Watch project expanded the scope of activities to cultivate student projects targeted at specific ExMC gaps, generate gap reports for a majority of the ExMC gaps and maturate a gap report review process to optimize the technical and managerial aspects of ExMC gap status. Through numerous site visits and discussions with academia faculty, several student projects were initiated and/or completed this past year. A key element to these student projects was the ability of the project to align with a specific ExMC technology or knowledge gap. These projects were mentored and reviewed by Tech Watch leads at the various NASA centers. Another result of the past years efforts was the population of the ExMC wiki website that now contains more the three quarters of the ExMC gap reports. The remaining gap reports will be completed in FY13. Finally, the gap report review process for all ExMC gaps was initiated. This review process was instrumental in ensuring that each gap report was thoroughly reviewed for accuracy and relevant content prior to its public release. In the upcoming year, the gap report review process will be refined such that in addition to the gap report update, programmatic information related to gap closure will also be emphasized.

The Technology Watch (Tech Watch) project is directed by the NASA Human Research Programs (HRP) Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) element, and primarily focuses on ExMC technology gaps. The project coordinates the efforts of multiple NASA centers, including the Johnson Space Center (JSC), Glenn Research Center (GRC), Ames Research Center (ARC), and the Langley Research Center (LaRC). The objective of Tech Watch is to identify emerging, high-impact technologies that augment current NASA HRP technology development efforts. Identifying such technologies accelerates the development of medical care and research capabilities for the mitigation of potential health issues encountered during human space exploration missions. The aim of this process is to leverage technologies developed by academia, industry and other government agencies and to identify the effective utilization of NASA resources to maximize the HRP return on investment. The establishment of collaborations with these entities is beneficial to technology development, assessment and/or insertion, and advance NASAs goal to provide a safe and healthy environment for human exploration. In fiscal year 2013, the Tech Watch project maintained student project activity aimed at specific ExMC gaps, completed the gap report review cycle for all gaps through a maturated gap report review process, and revised the ExMC Tech Watch Sharepoint site for enhanced data content and organization. Through site visits, internships and promotions via aerospace journals, several student projects were initiated and completed this past year. Upon project completion, the students presented their results via telecom or WebEx to the ExMC Element as a whole. The upcoming year will continue to forge strategic alliances and student projects in the interest of technology and knowledge gap closure. Through the population of Sharepoint with technologies assessed by the gap owners, the database expansion will develop a more comprehensive technology set for each gap. By placing such data in Sharepoint, the gap report updates in fiscal year 2014 are anticipated to be streamlined since the evaluated technologies will be readily available to the gap owners in a sortable archive, and may be simply exported into the final gap report presentation.

The Technology Watch (Tech Watch) project is directed by the NASA Human Research Program's (HRP) Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) element, and primarily focuses on ExMC technology gaps. The project coordinates the efforts of multiple NASA centers, including the Johnson Space Center (JSC), Glenn Research Center (GRC), Ames Research Center (ARC), and the Langley Research Center (LaRC). The objective of Tech Watch is to identify emerging, high-impact technologies that augment current NASA HRP technology development efforts. Identifying such technologies accelerates the development of medical care and research capabilities for the mitigation of potential health issues encountered during human space exploration missions. The aim of this process is to leverage technologies developed by academia, industry and other government agencies and to identify the effective utilization of NASA resources to maximize the HRP return on investment. The establishment of collaborations with these entities is beneficial to technology development, assessment and/or insertion, and advance NASA's goal to provide a safe and healthy environment for human exploration. In fiscal year 2013, the Tech Watch project maintained student project activity aimed at specific ExMC gaps, completed the gap report review cycle for all gaps through a maturated gap report review process, and revised the ExMC Tech Watch Sharepoint site for enhanced data content and organization. Through site visits, internships and promotions via aerospace journals, several student projects were initiated and completed this past year. Upon project completion, the students presented their results via telecom or WebEx to the ExMC Element as a whole. The upcoming year will continue to forge strategic alliances and student projects in the interest of technology and knowledge gap closure. Through the population of Sharepoint with technologies assessed by the gap owners, the database expansion will develop a more comprehensive technology set for each gap. By placing such data in Sharepoint, the gap report updates in fiscal year 2014 are anticipated to be streamlined since the evaluated technologies will be readily available to the gap owners in a sortable archive, and may be simply exported into the final gap report presentation

This American Chemical Society website helps users stay up to date on the latest chemistry research articles and patents. Each week, Noteworthy reliable summaries of the latest and most exciting publications in the chemistry-related journals. The Patent Watch helps users understand the importance of new drugs and other chemical innovations to our society. Visitors can find archives of both of these reports since 2002. While the website does not provide copies of the articles because of copyright regulations, the authors do provide references so that users can easily consult the literature.

Automatic welding systems for watch circuits were developed to automate large variety small quantity production processes. The aim of the development was achieved by solving problems involving prevention of solder ball generation and development of a new heating method for components with low heat resistance, and development of a system that permits production of various watch circuits operations. As a result, it was possible to produce systems for stable soldering and switchover production of a variety of watch circuits with reduced switchover time.

Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch® program evaluates the ecological sustainability of wild-caught and farmed seafood commonly found in the United States marketplace. Seafood Watch® defines sustainable seafood as originating from sources, whether wild-caught or farmed, which can maintain or increase production in the long-term without jeopardizing the structure or function of affected ecosystems. Seafood Watch® makes its science-based recommendations available

The commercial pipeline of recombinant antibody therapeutics is robust and dynamic. As of early December 2014, a total of 6 such products (vedolizumab, siltuximab, ramucirumab, pembrolizumab, nivolumab, blinatumomab) were granted first marketing approvals in 2014. As discussed in this perspective on antibodies in late-stage development, the outlook for additional approvals, potentially still in 2014 and certainly in 2015, is excellent as marketing applications for 7 antibody therapeutics (secukinumab, evolocumab, mepolizumab, dinutuximab, nivolumab, blinatumomab, necitumumab) are undergoing a first regulatory review in the EU or US. Of the 39 novel mAbs currently in Phase 3 studies, a marketing application for one (alirocumab) may be submitted in late 2014, and marketing application submissions for at least 4 (reslizumab, ixekizumab, ocrelizumab, obiltoxaximab) are expected in 2015. Other 'antibodies to watch' are those in Phase 3 studies with estimated primary completion dates in late 2014 or 2015, which includes 13 for non-cancer indications (brodalumab, bimagrumab, bococizumab, MABp1, gevokizumab, dupilumab, sirukumab, sarilumab, tildrakizumab, guselkumab, epratuzumab, combination of actoxumab + bezlotoxumab, romosozumab) and 2 (racotumomab and clivatuzumab tetraxetan) undergoing evaluation as treatments for cancer. In addition to the novel antibody therapeutics mentioned, biosimilar infliximab and biosimilar trastuzumab are 'antibodies to watch' in 2015 because of their potential for entry into the US market and regulatory review, respectively. PMID:25484055

CropWatch is a crop monitoring system developed and operated by the Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth (Chinese Academy of Sciences) to provide global-scale crop information, mostly for Chinese users. In its 15th year of operation, CropWatch uses remote sensing data combined with selected field data to determine key crop descriptors: acreage, yield and production, condition, cropping intensity, planting proportion, total food availability, and the status and severity of droughts. Currently, CropWatch is being upgraded with new indicators based on new sensors, especially those on board of China Environmental Satellite (HJ-1 CCD), the Medium Resolution Spectral Imager (MERSI) on Chinese meteorological satellite 3 (FY-3A) and geostationary meteorological satellites (FY-2). The new indicators can be assigned to three different scales: (1) global, (2) regional/Agro-ecological Zone (AEZ), and (3) National/sub-national level. At the global scale, CropWatch focuses on the growing environment including precipitation (R), soil moisture (SM), land surface temperature accumulation (LSTA) and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). National values of these four descriptors of the current season and their departure from long term average (LTA) will be determined by spatial average weighted by the production potential. At regional/AEZ scale, CropWatch will use three indicators (biomass, fallow land ratio and cropping intensity) to represent crop condition. At the national/sub-national scale, CropWatch will focus on 30 countries plus China, covering 80% of exports and 80% of production, plus some additional countries. Indicators at global and AEZ scale will also be used for the 30 countries plus China but at a high resolution. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) as well as Evapotranspiration (ET) will be incorporated to determine the crop condition and water stress. All these national/sub-national indicators will be analyzed by irrigated and rain-fed areas separately. For China, a special indicator (crop type proportion, CTP) will be used to estimate planting area by crop type. Based on the multi-scale remote sensing based indicators, CropWatch can identify recent and noteworthy changes affecting wheat, maize, rice and soybean, and focus on trends that are likely to continue.

SEA TURTLES Guidelines for watching turtles At night on the beach please follow the following code, turtle watching is best on a full moon. Walk the beach looking for turtle tracks, these will be about 1 metre wide. Follow the tracks carefully and quietly to locate the turtle. Avoid approaching turtles

FIRE WATCH FORM University Fire Marshal Guidance Document Approved by: R. Flynn Last revised by: R. Flynn Revision date: 08/18/2012 UFM Fire Watch Form Page 1 of 4 This document contains excerpts from the Fire Code of New York State that pertain to the impairment of a fire protection system

...watches. The employer must post a fire watch if during hot work any of the following conditions are present: (1) Slag, weld splatter, or sparks might pass through an opening and cause a fire; (2) Fire-resistant guards or curtains are not...

The 'Scuba Master' diver's watch represents a new concept. It was developed and announced in 1990. This watch automatically displays information necessary for safe scuba diving and records diving data. The watch was well accepted by divers all over the world. Safe diving techniques were investigated. This led to the need for developing a highly accurate, highly reliable depth measurement system. The functions and features of 'Scuba Masters' are described. The way to make the depth measurement system highly accurate and highly reliable is explained.

Since 2010, mAbs has documented the biopharmaceutical industry’s progress in transitioning antibody therapeutics to first Phase 3 clinical studies and regulatory review, and its success at gaining first marketing approvals for antibody-based products. This installment of the “Antibodies to watch” series outlines events anticipated to occur between December 2013 and the end of 2014, including first regulatory actions on marketing applications for vedolizumab, siltuximab, and ramucirumab, as well as the Fc fusion proteins Factor IX-Fc and Factor VIII-Fc; and the submission of first marketing applications for up to five therapeutics (secukinumab, ch14.18, onartuzumab, necitumumab, gevokizumab). Antibody therapeutics in Phase 3 studies are described, with an emphasis on those with study completion dates in 2014, including antibodies targeting interleukin-17a or the interleukin-17a receptor (secukinumab, ixekizumab, brodalumab), proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (alirocumab, evolocumab, bococizumab), and programmed death 1 receptor (lambrolizumab, nivolumab). Five antibodies with US Food and Drug Administration’s Breakthrough Therapy designation (obinutuzumab, ofatumumab, lambrolizumab, bimagrumab, daratumumab) are also discussed. PMID:24284914

Since 2010, mAbs has documented the biopharmaceutical industry's progress in transitioning antibody therapeutics to first Phase 3 clinical studies and regulatory review, and its success at gaining first marketing approvals for antibody-based products. This installment of the "Antibodies to watch" series outlines events anticipated to occur between December 2013 and the end of 2014, including first regulatory actions on marketing applications for vedolizumab, siltuximab, and ramucirumab, as well as the Fc fusion proteins Factor IX-Fc and Factor VIII-Fc; and the submission of first marketing applications for up to five therapeutics (secukinumab, ch14.18, onartuzumab, necitumumab, gevokizumab). Antibody therapeutics in Phase 3 studies are described, with an emphasis on those with study completion dates in 2014, including antibodies targeting interleukin-17a or the interleukin-17a receptor (secukinumab, ixekizumab, brodalumab), proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (alirocumab, evolocumab, bococizumab), and programmed death 1 receptor (lambrolizumab, nivolumab). Five antibodies with US Food and Drug Administration's Breakthrough Therapy designation (obinutuzumab, ofatumumab, lambrolizumab, bimagrumab, daratumumab) are also discussed. PMID:24284914

While several studies have been analysed the long-term surface ozone variability and trends at remote and rural locations of continental Europe, such an analysis is still lacking for the Mediterranean basin. For this reason, here we analysed the surface ozone variability observed at the Mt. Cimone WMO/GAW global station (CMN, 44°12' N, 10°42' E, 2165 m a.s.l., Italy) from 1991 to 2011. The measurements performed at this high-mountain observatory represent the longest surface ozone record at a baseline site in the Mediterranean basin. The shape of the mean annual variation of ozone (a winter minimum and a spring - summer maxima) is well comparable with that observed at other 4 baseline sites in the Alps and in the Mediterranean region (Jungfraujoch - Swiss Alps, Sonnblick - Austrian Alps, Mt. Krvavec- Slovenia and Giordan Lightouse - Island of Malta). In general, CMN shows higher ozone during warm months, which is likely to be related with vertical transport of polluted air-masses at regional and continental scales. In agreement with other baseline measurements in Europe, the first part of the CMN measurement period (1991-1993) was characterised by lower mean monthly mixing ratios, compared to the subsequent part of the time series. Constant ozone mixing ratios were generally observed at CMN from 1998 to middle 2004, while larger positive ozone anomalies were observed for the years 2005 - 2008. In agreement with other Alpine and Mediterranean baseline sites lower ozone values were finally observed at CMN during the most recent years (i.e. from 2009 to 2011). This resulted in the appearance of a significant positive linear trends in the monthly O3 mixing ratios over the period 1991 - 2011. On a seasonal basis, a positive trend has been observed for 1996 - 2011 only for spring. Significant decreases of the seasonal ozone growth-rates have been detected at CMN from winter to spring (during 1991 - 2011) and for summer during 1996 - 2011.

...manning document take into consideration routine maintenance requirements and ability of the crew to perform all operational evolutions, including emergencies, as well as those functions which may be assigned to persons in watches. (b) Subject to...

...certificate of inspection take into consideration routine maintenance requirements and ability of the crew to perform all operational evolutions, including emergencies, as well as those functions which may be assigned to persons in watches. (b) Subject...

...certificate of inspection take into consideration routine maintenance requirements and ability of the crew to perform all operational evolutions, including emergencies, as well as those functions which may be assigned to persons in watches. (b) Subject...

...certificate of inspection take into consideration routine maintenance requirements and ability of the crew to perform all operational evolutions, including emergencies, as well as those functions which may be assigned to persons in watches. (b) Subject...

...certificate of inspection take into consideration routine maintenance requirements and ability of the crew to perform all operational evolutions, including emergencies, as well as those functions which may be assigned to persons in watches. (b) Subject...

Human Rights Watch has recently posted a new report. "Limits of Tolerance: Freedom of Expression and the Public Debate in Chile," examines the extreme restrictions on freedom of speech and freedom of information in the ostensibly democratic nation of Chile.

Human Rights Watch has recently posted a new report. "Chemical Warfare in Bosnia? The Strange Experiences of the Srebrenica Survivors," investigates whether or not Serb forces used chemical agents in an attack against people fleeing Srebrenica in Bosnia and Hercegovina.

Human Rights Watch issued their annual world report yesterday, summarizing the state of human rights in 70 countries around the globe. Written with the clarity and detail that have marked previous annual issues, this year's report offers both good and bad news. On the positive side, it notes the popular overthrow of the Milosevic regime in Yugoslavia, the conclusion of a treaty barring the use of children as soldiers, and the UN Commission on Human Rights's first formal criticism of a permanent member of the UN Security Council (Russia, for its abuses in Chechnya). On the negative, the report cites the continued failure of the UN Commission to condemn China and the failure of the US to require the Colombian army to sever ties with paramilitaries as a condition for the recent huge military aid package to that country. The report begins with an essay on the global economy and then covers human rights developments by region. Separate sections of the report address special topics such as academic freedom, censorship, access to education, children's rights, and women's human rights. The report is available in both HTML and .rtf (zipped or uncompressed) formats.

As a formal activity of the World Meteorological Organization's Global Atmosphere Watch, to provide, through agency collaboration, a center of excellence in the United States that would impose quality assurance techniques on data collected by national air and precipitation quality networks operating in the Americas (north, south, and central).

Due to a large increase in the video surveillance data recently in an effort to maintain high security at public places, we need more robust systems to analyze this data and make tasks like face recognition a realistic possibility in challenging environments. In this paper we explore a watch-list scenario where we use an appearance based model to classify query faces from low resolution videos into either a watch-list or a non-watch-list face. We then use our simple yet a powerful face recognition system to recognize the faces classified as watch-list faces. Where the watch-list includes those people that we are interested in recognizing. Our system uses simple feature machine algorithms from our previous work to match video faces against still images. To test our approach, we match video faces against a large database of still images obtained from a previous work in the field from Yahoo News over a period of time. We do this matching in an efficient manner to come up with a faster and nearly real-time system. This system can be incorporated into a larger surveillance system equipped with advanced algorithms involving anomalous event detection and activity recognition. This is a step towards more secure and robust surveillance systems and efficient video data analysis.

This series of videos, presented by the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, deals with the disassembly of a liquid crystal watch. The experiment involves more than just involving the disassembly, the videos present the reaction of the LCD panel when exposed to things such as pressure, high temperatures, and a hot water bath. Not everything is these videos are reversible, so please use an inexpensive watch. But, other than that, this is a cheap and fun activity for any science classroom. It presents students with ways that science permeates our everyday lives.

The Mediterranean basin represents a hot spot area for short-term O3 distribution and anthropogenic contributions to it. This is why we analysed in this work the surface O3 variability observed at Mt. Cimone WMO/GAW global station (CMN, 44°12? N, 10°42? E, 2165 m a.s.l., Italy) from 1991 to 2011. The measurements performed at this mountain observatory represent the longest surface O3 record at a baseline site in the Mediterranean basin. Monthly O3 averages at CMN show a typical seasonal cycle characterised by a winter minimum and a spring - summer maxima. The shape of the mean annual variation of O3 is well comparable with those observed at other four baseline sites in the Alps and in the Mediterranean region: Jungfraujoch - Swiss Alps, Sonnblick - Austrian Alps, Mt. Krvavec- Slovenia and Giordan Lightouse - Island of Gozo, Malta. In general, O3 levels at CMN show higher values during warm months, which is likely to be related both to vertical transport of polluted air-masses at regional and continental scales and to enhanced photochemistry. Here, we also investigate the influence of specific atmospheric processes (i.e. the occurrence of heat-waves, North Atlantic Oscillation, thermal transport of air-masses from the regional PBL and stratospheric intrusions) in affecting O3 variability at CMN. Overall, a significant positive (95% confidence level) linear trend in monthly O3 mole fraction was observed over the period 1991-2011 (0.21 ± 0.10 nmol/mol yr-1) while no trend (-0.02 ± 0.12 nmol/mol yr-1) was detected for the 1996-2011, when measurements were carried out by an homogeneous experimental set-up. On a seasonal basis, a positive trend has been observed for 1996-2011 (0.34 ± 0.32 nmol/mol yr-1) only for spring. Significant decreases of the seasonal O3 growth-rates have been detected at CMN during 1991-2011 from winter to spring and only for summer during 1996-2011.

Describes a variety of teaching strategies to prepare a class for a whale watching field trip. Guidelines for recording a sighting, pictures and statistics for commonly and/or occasionally seen whales, and hints for avoiding sea sickness are included. (DH)

The mode of operation of the component mechanisms of clocks and watches is reviewed, and the errors in timekeeping which they introduce discussed together with the steps which are taken to rectify them. A review of mechanical clocks includes a consideration of the pendulum and circular, temperature, barometric and escapement errors. Specific escapements are discussed.Spring, temperature and escapement errors in

College and university presidents are increasingly called upon to make informed choices about technology. The rapidly shifting landscape makes it tough to keep up with change and innovation, let alone stay ahead of the curve. In this article, the authors discuss 10 trends to watch in campus technology. These trends are the following: (1) increased…

In addition to offering great opportunities for planet viewing, this summer is also a god time for observing Earth-orbiting satellites, or "bird-watching." There are several thousand satellites (not counting our Moon) in orbit around our planet. However,

...Requirements of STCW § 15.1109 Watches. Each master of a vessel that operates beyond the Boundary Line shall ensure observance of the principles concerning watchkeeping set out in STCW Regulation VIII/2 and section A-VIII/2 of the STCW...

01/06/07 'Forest Watch' A Partners and Community Crime Prevention Initiative What is 'Forest Watch'? Â· 'Forest Watch' is a Partners and Community Crime Prevention Initiative to reduce the amount of crime and anti-social behaviour in the forests of South Wales and to increase the amount of information regarding

Aboard the International Space Station (ISS), European Space Agency astronaut Pedro Duque of Spain watches a water bubble float between a camera and himself. The bubble shows his reflection (reversed). Duque was launched aboard a Russian Soyuz TMA-3 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan on October 18th, along with expedition-8 crew members Michael C. Foale, Mission Commander and NASA ISS Science Officer, and Cosmonaut Alexander Y. Kaleri, Soyuz Commander and flight engineer.

The Caliber ETA 252.411 with perpetual calendar, which is similar in dimensions and display to classic quartz watch movements, is described. The main characteristics are: the date display in the window is always correct (until 28 Feb. 2100); the change of time zones is operated without losing minute and second by means of a date correction at each midnight passage; and the use of nonvolatile memories for information concerning the perpetual calendar allows an easy time resetting after change of battery.

Measurements of trace gaseous pollutants were taken at the Shangdianzi site, a WMO Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) background station in Northern China. The results are presented for the period from September 2003 to December 2006. Seasonal and diurnal variations of the O3, NOx, SO2, and CO concentration are characterized and possible causes for them are discussed. The observed levels of the trace gases are comparable to those at some other background sites in polluted regions inside and outside of China. It was shown that the seasonal variation of O3 can change slightly from year to year due to the year-to-year alternation in the meteorological conditions. Higher CO concentrations were observed in some warmer months, particularly in June and July, 2006. Intensive biomass burning in the North China Plain region, in combination with the transport of regional pollution by more frequent southwesterly winds, is believed to be responsible for the elevated CO concentrations. The diurnal variation of O3, with delayed peaking times, suggests that the transport of photochemical aged plume is an important source for O3 at Shangdianzi. The diurnal variations of SO2 in all seasons show higher values during daytime, contradicting the common view. An explanation for this unusual phenomenon is hypothesized. To gain an insight into the impact of transport on the trace gases levels at Shangdianzi, air mass backward trajectories were calculated and analyzed in combination with corresponding pollutant concentrations. The results indicate that the transport of air masses from the North China Plain region and from the major coal mining regions west of Shangdianzi is responsible for the high concentrations of the gaseous pollutants.

The Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology's Weather Watch Radar website provides up-to-date radar images of the locations of rain in Australia in relation to local features such as coast lines. The newly developed Loops provide four consecutive radar images so that users can view how the weather has been changing in the last forty to fifty minutes. The website provides radar images of past cyclone events as well as updates on severe weather throughout Australia. Those interested in radar systems can discover how the weather radars work and how to interpret the maps. [RME

The reliability tests developed for controlling wrist watch movements and their casements are summarized. For controlling the watch movements, ageing accelerated tests and impact tests were performed. Testing the performance of a wrist watch casement is of great importance: since it is this which is initially attacked by the environment. The casement is submitted to impact, fatigue, vibration, and corrosion tests. The waterproof capabilities and ageing behavior of the casements are examined.

Stop watch which may be remotely controlled by the use of a solenoid mechanism is described. When the solenoid is energized, the coil spring pulls the lever arm and starts the balance wheel. When it is not energized, the spring pulls the lever and stops the watch.

this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the aboveCoastWatch Software Library and Utilities User's Guide Version 3.3.0 Revised October 22, 2013, AND INFORMATION SERVICE COASTWATCH PROGRAM #12;i Copyright Notice CoastWatch Software Library and Utilities

The present study investigated the relationship between gender roles and night-sky watching in a sample of college students (N=161). The Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) and the Noctcaelador Inventory (NI) were used to investigate the differences between gender role groups for night-sky watching. The results supported the hypothesis that androgynous…

Using data from the 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation, we tested the utility of the multiple hierarchy stratification perspective (MHSP) on predicting Americans' participation in wildlife watching close to home and away from home. The results showed that race\\/ethnicity was the best predictor of wildlife watching activities. Elderly White females who live in rural areas and

College students (N = 112) completed the Noctcaelador Inventory, a measure of psychological attachment to the night-sky, and estimated various night-sky watching related activities: frequency and duration of night-sky watching, astro-tourism, ownership of night-sky viewing equipment, and attendance of observatories or planetariums. The results…

... Voluntary vessels not equipped with DSC must maintain a watch on 2182 kHz...Voluntary vessels equipped with VHF-DSC equipment must maintain a watch on 2182...Voluntary vessels equipped with MF-HF DSC equipment must have the radio turned...

...this part exonerates any master or officer of the watch from the consequences of any neglect to keep a proper lookout or to maintain a proper fire watch, or of any neglect of any precaution that may be required by the ordinary practice of seamen, by...

...this part exonerates any master or officer of the watch from the consequences of any neglect to keep a proper lookout or to maintain a proper fire watch, or of any neglect of any precaution that may be required by the ordinary practice of seamen, by...

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the association of time watching television (TV) and physical activity with obesity in the Mediterranean area of Spain with the highest prevalence of obesity.DESIGN: Cross-sectional study.SETTING: Valencia Region in Spain.PARTICIPANTS: A representative sample of 814 men and 958 women, aged 15 y and older, participating in a Health and Nutrition Survey conducted in 1994.MEASUREMENTS: Height and weight

Today, human behavior drives many extinctions and preserves some species. To help understand such behavior, we published a book in 1999 that viewed selected endangered species through the eyes of those who have watched them decline and, in some cases, vanish from the wild. Here we revisit those stories to document what has happened in the interim 10 years, a period that is very short in evolutionary time but that has proven decisive for some endangered species. One species is now extinct in the wild; others have been devastated or scattered; several are on Ã¢ÂÂlife support.Ã¢ÂÂ Some things have not changed: Too many people consume too much, and disagreements among conservationists still impede progress. Some issues have become more prominent, such as emerging diseases and global economic crises. Although there have been some striking successes, it is very clear that more species now depend on human support for their survival than may be sustainable.

As 2010, the Whitney Biennial, approaches, the museum has mounted Watch & Listen, a collection of both current and archival online audio and video. There is a wide selection of material to browse, including previews of 2010, such as Ari Marcopoulos: FIFA 10- a movie showing one of the 2010 curators, Gary Carrion-Murayari, visiting Marcopoulos at home, where they play FIFA 10, while ambient noise plays in the background. Other materials include a video of artist Aki Sasamoto talking about the ways in which Japanese fishcakes and donuts inspire her art, filmed at a Brooklyn coffee shop, Building on Bond and curators Francesco Bonami and Gary Carrion-Murayari announcing the artist list. Videos not related to the Biennial include interviews with photographer William Eggleston on the opening of his retrospective Democratic Camera, Photographs and Video, 1961-2008, conducted between late 2008 and early 2009; and footage of recent events and performances at the Whitney Museum.

Cardiac glycosides (CGs) are natural compounds sharing the ability to operate as potent inhibitors of the plasma membrane Na(+)/K(+)-ATPase, hence promoting-via an indirect mechanism-the intracellular accumulation of Ca(2+) ions. In cardiomyocytes, increased intracellular Ca(2+) concentrations exert prominent positive inotropic effects, that is, they increase myocardial contractility. Owing to this feature, two CGs, namely digoxin and digitoxin, have extensively been used in the past for the treatment of several cardiac conditions, including distinct types of arrhythmia as well as contractility disorders. Nowadays, digoxin is approved by the FDA and indicated for the treatment of congestive heart failure, atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter with rapid ventricular response, whereas the use of digitoxin has been discontinued in several Western countries. Recently, CGs have been suggested to exert potent antineoplastic effects, notably as they appear to increase the immunogenicity of dying cancer cells. In this Trial Watch, we summarize the mechanisms that underpin the unsuspected anticancer potential of CGs and discuss the progress of clinical studies that have evaluated/are evaluating the safety and efficacy of CGs for oncological indications. PMID:23525565

Will Y2K be a big yawner or the end of the world as we know it? Either way, users can keep track of worldwide events via this site (provided, of course, they have power and a working phone line). Created by the International Y2K Cooperation Center, the Global Status Watch will serve as a central source for country-specific information on Y2K and infrastructure status. Other governments and the general public can visit the site during the date rollover to view a country summary Webpage which will show the status of all reporting countries and when the information was submitted. The summary page will also offer links to each country's individual report and its national Y2K Webpage. The country summary will be available beginning December 28 and continuing into January as long as needed. A selection of additional Y2K resources is available at the International Y2K Cooperation Center homepage, including surveys, a calender, Y2K coordinator contact information, conference proceedings, and tools and templates.

...2010-10-01 false Station log and radio watches. 80.1153 Section 80.1153...COMMISSION (CONTINUED) SAFETY AND SPECIAL RADIO SERVICES STATIONS IN THE MARITIME SERVICES Voluntary Radio Installations General § 80.1153...

Department of Psychology 100 Psychology Building Michigan State University WATCH FOR 4th ANNUAL "KALEIDOSCOPE OF CAREERS" PANEL PROGRAM IN SPRING 2010 4th ANNUAL "KALEIDOSCOPE OF GRADUATE PROGRAMS" TUESDAY NOVEMBER 17 6

The "Watch Dog" is a beam monitor designed for medical accelerators, that will be installed at the end of the CNAO (Centro Nazionale di Adroterapia Oncologica) extraction lines. Its main goal is to achieve a real time monitoring of the beam position during patient treatments; the system can generate an interlock signal in case the measured quantity is out of the nominal range. In this paper the Watch Dog is described, and preliminary tests are presented.

The Linux Watch is a wearable information access device that is worn on the wrist. It is an ARM7-based low-power Linux system\\u000a with shortrange wireless communications and a multi-modal (voice and image) user interface with a watch shape and is used\\u000a as a hardware platform for wearable computing research. The Hands-free Mobile System is a kind of speechoriented client-server\\u000a system

...radiotelephone watch receiver having a loudspeaker and a radiotelephone auto alarm must be used to keep the continuous watch on 2182 kHz...ship, the watch may be maintained by use of the radiotelephone auto alarm facility alone. (2) Keep a continuous watch...

...radiotelephone watch receiver having a loudspeaker and a radiotelephone auto alarm must be used to keep the continuous watch on 2182 kHz...ship, the watch may be maintained by use of the radiotelephone auto alarm facility alone. (2) Keep a continuous watch...

Prophylactic vaccination constitutes one of the most prominent medical achievements of history. This concept was first demonstrated by the pioneer work of Edward Jenner, dating back to the late 1790s, after which an array of preparations that confer life-long protective immunity against several infectious agents has been developed. The ensuing implementation of nation-wide vaccination programs has de facto abated the incidence of dreadful diseases including rabies, typhoid, cholera and many others. Among all, the most impressive result of vaccination campaigns is surely represented by the eradication of natural smallpox infection, which was definitively certified by the WHO in 1980. The idea of employing vaccines as anticancer interventions was first theorized in the 1890s by Paul Ehrlich and William Coley. However, it soon became clear that while vaccination could be efficiently employed as a preventive measure against infectious agents, anticancer vaccines would have to (1) operate as therapeutic, rather than preventive, interventions (at least in the vast majority of settings), and (2) circumvent the fact that tumor cells often fail to elicit immune responses. During the past 30 y, along with the recognition that the immune system is not irresponsive to tumors (as it was initially thought) and that malignant cells express tumor-associated antigens whereby they can be discriminated from normal cells, considerable efforts have been dedicated to the development of anticancer vaccines. Some of these approaches, encompassing cell-based, DNA-based and purified component-based preparations, have already been shown to exert conspicuous anticancer effects in cohorts of patients affected by both hematological and solid malignancies. In this Trial Watch, we will summarize the results of recent clinical trials that have evaluated/are evaluating purified peptides or full-length proteins as therapeutic interventions against cancer. PMID:23264902

The foundation of modern vaccinology dates back to the 1790s, when the English physician Edward Jenner uncovered the tremendous medical potential of prophylactic vaccination. Jenner's work ignited a wave of nationwide vaccination campaigns abating the incidence of multiple life-threatening infectious diseases and culminating with the eradication of natural smallpox virus, which was definitively certified by the WHO in 1980. The possibility of using vaccines against cancer was first proposed at the end of the 19th century by Paul Ehrlich and William Coley. However, it was not until the 1990s that such a hypothesis began to be intensively investigated, following the realization that the immune system is not completely unresponsive to tumors and that neoplastic cells express immunogenic tumor-associated antigens (TAAs). Nowadays, anticancer vaccines are rapidly moving from the bench to the bedside, and a few prophylactic and therapeutic preparations have already been approved by FDA for use in humans. In this setting, one interesting approach is constituted by DNA vaccines, i.e., TAA-encoding circularized DNA constructs, often of bacterial origin, that are delivered to patients as such or by means of specific vectors, including (but not limited to) liposomal preparations, nanoparticles, bacteria and viruses. The administration of DNA vaccines is most often performed via the intramuscular or subcutaneous route and is expected to cause (1) the endogenous synthesis of the TAA by myocytes and/or resident antigen-presenting cells; (2) the presentation of TAA-derived peptides on the cell surface, in association with MHC class I molecules; and (3) the activation of potentially therapeutic tumor-specific immune responses. In this Trial Watch, we will summarize the results of recent clinical trials that have evaluated/are evaluating DNA vaccines as therapeutic interventions against cancer. PMID:23734328

FIRE WATCH PROCEDURES FOR GREEK FACILITIES Background A Fire Watch is a physical inspection conducted when a building's fire alarm and/or sprinkler system is not operational. During a Fire Watch, a responsible occupant actively looks for evidence of smo ke and fire, listens for in-room smoke detectors

To study the influence of polluted air-mass transport carrying ozone (O3) and black carbon (BC) in the high Himalayas, since March 2006 the Nepal Climate Observatory at Pyramid (NCO-P) GAW-WMO global station (Nepal, 5079 m a.s.l.) is operative. During the first 5-year measurements, the O3 and BC concentrations have shown a mean value of 48 +/- 12 ppb (+/- standard deviation) and 208 +/- 374 ng/m3, respectively. Both O3 and BC showed well defined seasonal cycles with maxima during pre-monsoon (O3: 61.3 +/- 7.7 ppbV; BC: 444 +/- 433 ng/m3) and minima during the summer monsoon (O3: 40.1 +/- 12.4 ppbV; BC: 64 +/- 101 ng/m3). The analysis of the days characterised by the presence of a significant BC increase with respect to the typical seasonal cycle identified 156 days affected by "acute" pollution events, corresponding to 9.1% of the entire data-set. Such events mostly occur in the pre-monsoon period, when the O3 diurnal variability is strongly related to the transport of polluted air-mass rich on BC. On average, these "acute" pollution events were characterised by dramatic increases of BC (352%) and O3 (29%) levels compared with the remaining days. PMID:24520700

Sandia National Laboratories has developed a remote sensor package that provides a low-cost, convenient way of monitoring item movement. Originally, the package was intended for use in valve monitoring, but it is now possible to use it in any sensor application where hardwire installation is impractical or uneconomical. Full system implementation includes a receiver/controller which correlates the arrival time of RF signals generated by item-monitoring transmitters to increase communication security. Wireless Alarm Transmission of Contained Handling (WATCH) is such a system. One important application of WATCH is in storage vaults where there are a number of material containers. Applying WATCH to inventory control reduces inventory workload and employee exposure rates; the system also provides quick access to inventory information by interfacing the system with plant site computer systems.

Aerosols and tropospheric ozone play a key role in the climate system, since they are short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs). South Asia represents a "hot-spot" in terms of climate change, since a vast region extending from the Indian Ocean to the Himalayas appears to be affected by large amounts of aerosols and pollutant gases (the so-called Atmospheric Brown Cloud). In the framework of the SusKat - ABC field campaign, a new measurement station has been installed in Pakanajol, Kathmandu (Nepal) on January 2013. This station is representative of the severe polluted conditions of the Kathmandu valley. Continuous measurements of equivalent black carbon (eqBC), surface ozone (O3), aerosol number concentration and size distribution, on-line PM10-PM1, as well as meteorological parameters, are carried out at this sampling site. In the high Himalayas (150 km north-east from Kathmandu), continuous atmospheric composition measurements are performed at the WMO/GAW Global Station Nepal Climate Observatory-Pyramid (NCO-P, 5079 m a.s.l.) in the Southern Himalayas. This measurement site is representative of the background conditions of the Himalayan ridge and measurements of eqBC, O3, aerosol number size distribution and meteorological parameters are continuously carried out since March 2006. The aim of this work is to compare the variability of atmospheric composition between the two sampling sites, with a particular emphasis on SLCFs, thus providing two complementary perspectives about the Atmospheric Brown Cloud phenomenon. Moreover, hints about the possible role of vertical air-mass transport of SLCFs from the foothills to the high Himalayas will be provided. The seasonal trend of eqBC at Pakanajol is characterized by a decreasing behavior from winter to monsoon, while at NCO-P it is characterized by a clear pre-monsoon maximum. On the other hand, at both sampling sites, O3 and particle number (accumulation and coarse) showed highest values during the pre-monsoon (April-May), even if at NCO-P significantly lower levels of eqBC and aerosol particle number (ratio 7% for eqBC, 29% for accumulation and 12% for coarse particles) were observed in respect to Kathmandu. Moreover, case studies concerning simultaneous events of eqBC and O3 increases in Kathmandu and in the high Himalayas will be investigated.

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Research suggests that massive open online course (MOOC) students prefer to study in groups, and that social facilitation within the study groups may render the learning of difficult concepts a pleasing experience. We report on a longitudinal study that investigates how co-located study groups watch and study MOOC videos together. The study was…

Operation Waste Watch is a series of seven sequential learning units which addresses the subject of litter control and solid waste management. Each unit may be used in a variety of ways, depending on the needs and schedules of individual schools, and may be incorporated into various social studies, science, language arts, health, mathematics, and…

This report explains that all adults must watch out for all children, cautioning that marketing is harmful to children. Advertisers are aggressively targeting age groups that, until recently, have been considered off-limits and occupying more of children's psychic and physical space. The report presents a commitment by mothers to all children to…

29 Sun Watching Lesson 4: Making a Sun Clock Lesson 4: Making a Sun Clock A major factor contributing toward our concept of time is based on the apparent motion of the Sun. In this activity, students will construct Pocket Sun Clocks. They are challenged to determine the correct orientation needed for the Sun

This study is an examination of the use of captioned video with beginning students of Spanish. Two groups of students watched a Spanish-language video with or without Spanish captioning and the groups' comprehension scores were compared. Students in the captioning group described how they used the pictures, sound, and captioning to understand the…

At the centre of the PRIME Faraday Partnership's Technology Watch service is a growing series of technology and market reviews for managers and engineers in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) producing "smart" products. Its aim is to help them maintain their awareness of new technologies and markets and thereby seize opportunities to…

for the monitoring of Windows NT/2000. WatchTower has an overhead similar to that of existing tools but is more capturing the overall behavior of the computer. Keywords Performance monitoring, data reduction, Windows NT access to the performance counters that the Windows NT/2000 operating systems manage and is easily

In this activity, learners use a nail and magnet wire to build an electromagnet, which controls the movements of a paper dancer. Learners will enjoy watching the dancer swirl around when they activate the electromagnet. Use this activity to help learners explore circuits, electromagnets, and currents. Includes pictures, detailed steps for construction, and focus questions to enhance learning.

Print the story Watching DNA Repair in Real Time Direct observations of DNA are giving new insights into how genetic material is copied and repaired. "We can monitor the process directly, and that gives us of an enzyme called RecA attach themselves along a DNA strand, stretching it out and forming a filament

Invitation/Program Technology Watch Day on Future Biofuels and 4. TMFB International Workshop;International Research Centers Focussing on Future Biofuels are Presenting Their Research Approaches and Current Concerning Future Biofuels DBFZ Â­ Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum M. Seiffert, F. Mueller-Langer German

Monarch Watch contains information on monarch butterfly natural history and research, with an emphasis on opportunities for amateur and professional involvement in monarch monitoring and conservation. This site adds an important new avenue for collaboration between professional and amateur entomologists in the growing field of insect conservation.

Forest Watch, a k-12 science outreach program begun at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) in 1991, has engaged pre-college students in providing UNH researchers with data on the annual response of white pine (Pinus strobus; a bio-indicator species for ozone exposure) to ground-level ozone across the New England region. Each year, student-collected growth and foliar symptomology data for 5 pine trees adjacent to their schools, along with first-year foliar samples, are submitted to UNH. Key foliar symptoms and student data are compared with summer monthly (JJA) maximum ozone concentrations collected by state and federal ozone monitoring stations across the region. To date, tree health indicators are inversely correlated (r2=0.83;p=0.10) with ozone concentrations: low ozone levels correlate with symptoms of good health (spectral indices diagnostic of high foliar chlorophyll levels and moisture content, normal incremental growth, low number of foliar symptoms), while summers characterized by high ozone concentrations correlate with symptoms of reduced health (low chlorophyll indices and moisture content, reduced incremental growth, increased number of foliar symptoms). In drought years (1999, 2001, 2002, 2003) few foliar symptoms of ozone damage are seen even though ozone levels were high, likely due to drought-induced stomatal closure. Based on student data since 1998, either low ozone summers, or drought summers have resulted in improved health in the sampled trees (n=30). Based on the success of Forest Watch in New England, we are exploring the extension of the program to Colorado as Front Range Forest Watch, operated from Colorado State University (CSU). The primary objective is to develop a student-scientist-local agency project that addresses real ecological issues in northern Colorado, including ozone pollution, and to provide pre-college students and teachers authentic science experiences. CSU runs a GK-12 program with Poudre School District in northern Colorado, which infuses ecology graduate students into the public school system to assist in the delivery of science content. The extension of Forest Watch to northern Colorado will provide a test-bed for the possible extension of the program to the rest of the state.

As manta rays face increased threats from targeted and bycatch fisheries, manta ray watching tourism, if managed properly, may present an attractive economic alternative to consumptive use of these species. Both species in the genus Manta (Manta alfredi and Manta birostris) are classified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List as species Vulnerable to extinction in the wild, and are considered unsustainable as fisheries resources due to their conservative life history characteristics, which considerably reduce their ability to recover population numbers when depleted. Utilising dive operator surveys, Internet research, and a literature review, this study provides the first global estimate of the direct economic impact of manta ray watching tourism and examines the potential socio-economic benefits of non-consumptive manta ray watching operations relative to consumptive use of manta rays as a fishery resource. In the 23 countries in which manta ray watching operations meeting our criteria were identified, we estimated direct revenue to dive operators from manta ray dives and snorkels at over US$73 million annually and direct economic impact, including associated tourism expenditures, of US$140 million annually. Ten countries account for almost 93% of the global revenue estimate, specifically Japan, Indonesia, the Maldives, Mozambique, Thailand, Australia, Mexico, United States, Federated States of Micronesia and Palau. In many of the areas where directed fisheries for manta rays are known to occur, these activities overlap with manta ray tourism sites or the migratory range of the mantas on which these sites depend, and are likely to be unsustainable and detrimental to manta ray watching tourism. PMID:23741450

fire extinguishers. RESPONSIBILITY ACTION ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH AND SAFETY A fire watch shallP\\procedure\\EH&S#18 Page 1 of 4 TITLE FIRE WATCH POLICY OBJECTIVE AND PURPOSE This policy outlines the requirements of a fire watch if the fire alarm and/or sprinkler systems in any University building become

... E-mail Consumer Updates RSS Feed FDA 101: How to Use the Consumer Complaint System and MedWatch Search ... serious illness, or even death." back to top How to Report to MedWatch Reporting to MedWatch is easy, ...

For most of history, humans have been watching the night-sky (Hawkins, 1983). Historically, individuals have watched the night-sky for aesthetic appreciation and to gain insights and knowledge (Brecher & Feirtag, 1979). Despite the long history of night-sky watching among humans and the apparent importance of the behavior to large groups of…

Behavioral responses of Risso’s dolphins (Grampus griseus) to whale watching vessels were studied off Pico Island, Azores. Dolphin behavior was studied from a land-based lookout, enabling observations of groups in the absence and presence of vessels. The number of whale watching vessels showed a clear seasonal pattern, dividing the whale watching period into a low season and a high season.

To enhance the use of the Globe Watch IV public television series, produced jointly by Hampden-Sydney College (Virginia) and the University of North Carolina Center for Public Television, each lesson in this guide provides: (1) a statement of the objective of the program; (2) a synopsis of the issue discussed; (3) background information; (4) brief…

The Wall Street Journal magazine of personal business SmartMoney.com provides this new financial tool for investors. The Map of the Market allows users to customize their own color-coded maps of stock activity for up to 500 companies. Map regions are divided by industry sector, and each area yields detailed company earnings reports, analyst recommendations, and business news with a click of the mouse. Note: red/green colorblind users may alter map colors to blue/yellow with the Map Control Panel.

Cognitive research shows that people typically remember actions they perform better than those that they only watch or imagine doing, but also at times misremember doing actions they merely imagined or planned to do (source memory errors). Neural research suggests some overlap between brain regions engaged during action production, motor imagery, and action observation. The present study evaluates the similar-ities\\/differences

Atmospheric HCFC-22 (CHClF2) and HCFC-142b (CH3CClF2) in-situ measurements have been recorded by an automated gas chromatograph-electron capture detectors (GC-ECDs) system and a gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Medusa-GC/MS) system at the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) regional background station Shangdianzi (SDZ), China. The mixing ratios of the two HCFCs at SDZ show frequent events with elevated concentrations due to polluted air from urban or industrialized areas. The mean background mixing ratios for HCFC-22 and HCFC-142b were 205.3 ppt (parts per trillion, 10-12, molar) and 20.7 ppt, respectively, for the study period (March 2007-February 2011). The yearly background mixing ratios for the two HCFCs at SDZ are similar to those measured at Trinidad Head and Mace Head located in the Northern Hemisphere (NH), but larger than Cape Grim and Cape Matatula (located in the Southern Hemisphere) due to inter-hemispheric differences caused by predominantly NH emissions. During the study period, background mixing ratios exhibited positive growth rates of 8.7 ppt yr-1 for HCFC-22 and 0.95 ppt yr-1 for HCFC-142b. HCFC's seasonality exhibits a summer/autumn maximum and a winter minimum. 4-year averaged background seasonal amplitudes (maximum-minimum) are 6.0 ppt for HCFC-22 and 0.9 ppt for HCFC-142b. The seasonal fluctuations (maximum-minimum) in polluted events are 105.4 ppt for HCFC-22 and 29.1 ppt for HCFC-142b, which are much stronger than the fluctuations under background conditions. However, both HCFC-22 and HCFC-142b show summer minima in 2008, which is most likely due to emission control regulations when the Olympic Games were held in Beijing.

To expand the utility of the Mussel Watch Program, local, regional and state agencies in California partnered with NOAA to design a pilot study that targeted contaminants of emerging concern (CECs). Native mussels (Mytilus spp.) from 68 stations, stratified by land use and discharge scenario, were collected in 2009-10 and analyzed for 167 individual pharmaceuticals, industrial and commercial chemicals and current use pesticides. Passive sampling devices (PSDs) and caged Mytilus were co-deployed to expand the list of CECs, and to assess the ability of PSDs to mimic bioaccumulation by Mytilus. A performance-based quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) approach was developed to ensure a high degree of data quality, consistency and comparability. Data management and analysis were streamlined and standardized using automated software tools. This pioneering study will help shape future monitoring efforts in California's coastal ecosystems, while serving as a model for monitoring CECs within the region and across the nation. PMID:23886247

Nongovernmental organizations (NGO) and community-based groups working on HIV/AIDS in Thailand, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Malaysia, and other countries participated in a February 1991 workshop during which they recognized that human rights are inextricably linked with HIV prevention, the provision of services, and improving the quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS and other vulnerable, marginalized groups. They also noted how rarely environments were supportive with respect to either legal structures or sociocultural norms. The groups resolved to act as a watchdog, an advocacy and lobbying group to monitor legislation, provide public information, and empower people with HIV/AIDS as visible and active partners. Meeting again in 1993 to assess progress, the groups found few gains in addressing human rights violations such as the denial of medical services to people with HIV/AIDS and the deportation of HIV-positive migrant workers. The Asia Pacific Council of AIDS Service Organizations (APCASO) responded by developing a pilot documentation, monitoring, and reporting system in the region to record HIV-related human rights violations. That system is described. PMID:12347180

In this paper we report the results of the electron spin resonance (ESR) study of the radiation-induced signal of watch glasses exposed to neutrons. This work extends the series of analyses of the response of watch glasses to various radiation beams which our research group is carrying out for possible applications in retrospective dosimetry. We have considered fluences up to about 3 × 1011 cm-2. We evaluated the signal fading and we found that in the first hours after exposure the signal rapidly decreases. After about 1000 h, it decreases much more slowly. The signal was reduced by about 25% in about 5 months. The radiation induced signal is found to be linearly dependent on neutron fluence and an estimate of the lowest detectable fluence is provided.

This work investigates the variability of ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO) and equivalent black carbon (BC) at the Italian Climate Observatory "O. Vittori" (ICO-OV), part of the Mt. Cimone global GAW-WMO station (Italy). For this purpose, ICO-OV observations carried out in the period January 2007-June 2009, have been analyzed and correlated with the outputs of the FLEXPART Lagrangian dispersion model to specifically evaluate the influence of biomass burning (BB) and anthropogenic emissions younger than 20 days. During the investigation period, the average O3, CO and BC at ICO-OV were 54 ± 3 ppb, 122 ± 7 ppb and 213 ± 34 ng m-3 (mean ± expanded uncertainty with p < 95%), with clear seasonal cycles characterized by summer maxima and winter minima for O3 and BC and spring maximum and summer minimum for CO. According to FLEXPART outputs, BB impact is maximized during the warm months from July to September but appeared to have a significant contribution to the observed tracers only during specific transport events. We characterised in detail five "representative" events with respect to transport scales (i.e. global, regional and local), source regions and O3, CO and BC variations. For these events, very large variability of enhancement ratios O3/CO (from -0.22 to 0.71) and BC/CO (from 2.69 to 29.83 ng m-3 ppb-1) were observed. CO contributions related with anthropogenic emissions (COant) contributed to 17.4% of the mean CO value observed at ICO-OV, with the warm months appearing particularly affected by transport events of air-masses rich in anthropogenic pollution. The proportion of tracer variability that is described by FLEXPART COant peaked to 37% (in May-September) for CO, 19% (in May-September) for O3 and 32% (in January-April) for BC. During May-September, the analysis of the correlation among CO, O3 and BC as a function of the COant indicated that ICO-OV was influenced by air-masses rich in anthropogenic pollution transported from the regional to the global scale. On the other side, CO and O3 were negatively correlated during October-December, when FLEXPART does not show significant presence of recent anthropogenic emissions and only a few observations are characterized by enhanced BC. Such behaviour may be attributed to an ensemble of processes concurrent in enhancing O3 with low CO (upper troposphere/lower stratosphere intrusions) and to O3 titration by NO in polluted air-masses along with lower photochemical activity. An intermediate situation occurs in January-April when CO and O3 were almost uncorrelated and BC enhancements were associated to relatively old (10 days) anthropogenic emissions.

Since 1999 the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has undertaken a joint project, called Hurricane Watch (HW), with the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS), the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\\/Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (NOAA\\/AOML), and more recently the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). This project has evolved from archival data searches to storm monitoring and dedicated

This paper discusses possible correspondences between neuroscientific findings and phenomenologically informed methodologies\\u000a in the investigation of kinesthetic empathy in watching dance. Interest in phenomenology has recently increased in cognitive\\u000a science (Gallagher and Zahavi 2008) and dance scholars have recently contributed important new insights into the use of phenomenology in dance studies (e.g.\\u000a Legrand and Ravn (Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences

Understanding and managing the complexity of the biodiversity system in relation to global changes concerning land use and climate change with their social and economic implications is crucial to mitigate species loss and biodiversity changes in general. The sustainable development and exploitation of existing biodiversity resources require flexible and powerful infrastructures offering, on the one hand, the access to large-scale databases of observations and measures, to advanced analytical and modelling software, and to high performance computing environments and, on the other hand, the interlinkage of European scientific communities among each others and with national policies. The European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) selected the "LifeWatch e-science and technology infrastructure for biodiversity research" as a promising development to construct facilities to contribute to meet those challenges. LifeWatch collaborates with other selected initiatives (e.g. ICOS, ANAEE, NOHA, and LTER-Europa) to achieve the integration of the infrastructures at landscape and regional scales. This should result in a cooperating cluster of such infrastructures supporting an integrated approach for data capture and transmission, data management and harmonisation. Besides, facilities for exploration, forecasting, and presentation using heterogeneous and distributed data and tools should allow the interdisciplinary scientific research at any spatial and temporal scale. LifeWatch is an example of a new generation of interoperable research infrastructures based on standards and a service-oriented architecture that allow for linkage with external resources and associated infrastructures. External data sources will be established data aggregators as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) for species occurrences and other EU Networks of Excellence like the Long-Term Ecological Research Network (LTER), GMES, and GEOSS for terrestrial monitoring, the MARBEF network for marine data, and the Consortium for European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF) and its European Distributed Institute for Taxonomy (EDIT) for taxonomic data. But also "smaller" networks and "volunteer scientists" may send data (e.g. GPS supported species observations) to a LifeWatch repository. Autonomous operating wireless environmental sensors and other smart hand-held devices will contribute to increase data capture activities. In this way LifeWatch will directly underpin the development of GEOBON, the biodiversity component if GEOSS, the Global Earth observation System. To overcome all major technical difficulties imposed by the variety of currently and future technologies, protocols, data formats, etc., LifeWatch will define and use common open interfaces. For this purpose, the LifeWatch Reference Model was developed during the preparatory phase specifying the service-oriented architecture underlying the ICT-infrastructure. The Reference Model identifies key requirements and key architectural concepts to support workflows for scientific in-silico experiments, tracking of provenance, and semantic enhancement, besides meeting the functional requirements mentioned before. It provides guidelines for the specification and implementation of services and information models, defining as well a number of generic services and models. Another key issue addressed by the Reference Model is that the cooperation of many developer teams residing in many European countries has to be organized to obtain compatible results in that conformance with the specifications and policies of the Reference Model will be required. The LifeWatch Reference Model is based on the ORCHESTRA Reference Model for geospatial-oriented architectures and services networks that provides a generic framework and has been endorsed as best practice by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). The LifeWatch Infrastructure will allow (interdisciplinary) scientific researchers to collaborate by creating e-Laboratories or by composing e-Services which can be shared and joi

First Visiting Astronomers to VLT ANTU Observe the Early Universe When the first 8.2-m VLT Unit Telescope (ANTU) was "handed over" to the scientists on April 1, 1999, the first "visiting astronomers" at Paranal were George Miley and Huub Rottgering from the Leiden Observatory (The Netherlands) [1]. They obtained unique pictures of a distant exploding galaxy known as 1138 - 262 . These images provide new information about how massive galaxies and clusters of galaxies may have formed in the early Universe. Formation of clusters of galaxies An intriguing question in modern astronomy is how the first galaxies and groupings or clusters of galaxies emerged from the primeval gas produced in the Big Bang. Some theories predict that giant galaxies, often found at the centres of rich galaxy clusters, are built up through a step-wise process. Clumps develop in this gas and stars condense out of those clumps to form small galaxies. Finally these small galaxies merge together to form larger units. An enigmatic class of objects important for investigating such scenarios are galaxies which emit intense radio emission from explosions that occur deep in their nuclei. The explosions are believed to be triggered when material from the merging swarm of smaller galaxies is fed into a rotating black hole located in the central regions. There is strong evidence that these distant radio galaxies are amongst the oldest and most massive galaxies in the early Universe and are often located at the heart of rich clusters of galaxies. They can therefore help pinpoint regions of the Universe in which large galaxies and clusters of galaxies are being formed. The radio galaxy 1138-262 The first visiting astronomers pointed ANTU towards a particularly important radio galaxy named 1138-262 . It is located in the southern constellation Hydra (The Water Snake). This galaxy was discovered some years ago using ESO's 3.5-m New Technology Telescope (NTT) at La Silla. Because 1138-262 is at a distance of about 10,000 million light-years from the Earth (the redshift is 2.2), the VLT sees it as it was when the Universe was only about 20% of its present age. Previous observations of this galaxy by the same team of astronomers showed that its radio, X-ray and optical emission had many extreme characteristics that would be expected from a giant galaxy, forming at the centre of a rich cluster. However, because the galaxy is so distant, the cluster could not be seen directly. Radio data obtained by the Very Large Array (VLA) in the USA and X-ray data with the ROSAT satellite both indicated that the galaxy is surrounded by a hot gas similar to that observed at the centres of nearby rich clusters of galaxies. Most telling was a picture taken by the Hubble Space Telescope that revealed that the galaxy comprises a large number of clumps, and which bore a remarkable resemblance to computer models of the birth of giant galaxies in clusters. From these observations, it was concluded that 1138-262 is likely to be a massive galaxy in the final stage of assemblage through merging with many smaller galaxies in an infant rich cluster and the most distant known X-ray cluster. VLT obtains Lyman-alpha images ESO PR Photo 33a/99 ESO PR Photo 33a/99 [Preview - JPEG: 483 x 400 pix - 86k] [Normal - JPEG: 966 x 800 pix - 230k] [High-Res - JPEG: 2894 x 2396 pix - 1.1M] Caption to ESO PR Photo 33a/99 : False-colour picture of the ionized hydrogen gas surrounding 1138-262 (Lyman-alpha). The size of this cloud is about 5 times larger than the optical extent of the Milky Way Galaxy. A contour plot, as observed with VLT ANTU + FORS1 in a narrow-band filter around the wavelength of the redshifted Lyman-alpha line, is superposed on a false-colour representation of the same image. The contour levels are a geometric progression in steps of 2 1/2. The image has not been flux calibrated, so the first contour level is arbitrary. The field measures 35 x 25 arcsec 2 , corresponding to about 910,000 x 650,000 light-years (280 x 200 kpc). The linear scale is indicated at the lower left

...Allocation of Duty-Exemptions for Calendar Year 2010 for Watch Producers Located...SUMMARY: This action allocates calendar year 2010 duty exemptions for watch assembly...insular watches and watch movements for calendar year 2010 is 1,866,000 units...

...INTERIOR Allocation of Duty-Exemptions for Calendar Year 2013 for Watch Producers Located...SUMMARY: This action allocates calendar year 2013 duty exemptions for watch assembly...insular watches and watch movements for calendar year 2013 is 1,866,000 units...

...INTERIOR Allocation of Duty-Exemptions for Calendar Year 2012 for Watch Producers Located...SUMMARY: This action allocates calendar year 2012 duty exemptions for watch assembly...insular watches and watch movements for calendar year 2012 is 1,866,000 units...

...INTERIOR Allocation of Duty-Exemptions for Calendar Year 2011 for Watch Producers Located...SUMMARY: This action allocates calendar year 2011 duty exemptions for watch assembly...insular watches and watch movements for calendar year 2011 is 1,866,000 units...

Introduction Family violence is a complex, multidimensional and pervasive presence in many Aboriginal communities. Although practitioners acknowledge that intimate partner violence (IPV) is a grave concern in the North, as in other jurisdictions in Canada, there is a paucity of literature about IPV and the local response to that violence. Objective The purpose of this study is to report on a synthesis of Northern Territorial literature and a 3-year media watch conducted in the Canadian territories. Design This review is part of a multidisciplinary 5-year study occurring in the Northwest Territories (NT) and northern regions of the Prairie Provinces of Canada. The methods included a review of the literature through CINAHL, PubMed, Academic Search Complete, Social Sciences Index and JSTOR (1990–2012) combined with a media watch from 2009 to 2012. A thematic content analysis was completed. Results Themes included: colonization; alcohol and substance use; effects of residential schooling; housing inadequacies; help-seeking behaviors; and gaps within the justice system. Identified themes from the media watch were: murders from IPV; reported assaults and criminal charges; emergency protection orders; and awareness campaigns and prevention measures. Conclusion When synthesized, the results of the literature review and media surveillance depict a starting context and description of IPV in the Canadian territories. There are many questions left unanswered which build support for the necessity of the current research, outline the public outcry for action in local media and identify the current published knowledge about IPV. PMID:23986894

People spend considerable amounts of time and money listening to music, watching TV and movies, and reading books and magazines, yet almost no attention in psychology has been devoted to understanding individual differences in preferences for such entertainment. The present research was designed to examine the structure and correlates of entertainment genre preferences. Analyses of the genre preferences of over 3,000 individuals revealed a remarkably clear factor structure. Using multiple samples, methods, and geographic regions, data converged to reveal five entertainment-preference dimensions: Communal, Aesthetic, Dark, Thrilling, and Cerebral. Preferences for these entertainment dimensions were uniquely related to demographics and personality traits. Results also indicated that personality accounted for significant proportions of variance in entertainment preferences over and above demographics. The results provide a foundation for developing and testing hypotheses about the psychology of entertainment preferences. PMID:20649744

Ventral hernias are a common clinical problem. Immediate repair is recommended for most ventral hernias despite significant recurrence rates. This practice may be related to a lack of understanding of the natural history of ventral hernias. The purpose of this study was to determine the natural history of ventral hernias and to determine if watchful waiting is an acceptable and safe option. Forty-one patients with ventral hernias were enrolled in a longitudinal cohort study of watchful waiting. Primary outcomes were functional impairment resulting from hernia disease as measured by the Activities Assessment Scale (AAS) and changes from baseline to two years in the physical and mental component score of the SF-36 Health Survey. Secondary outcomes included complications such as incarceration. Mixed-effects model for repeated measures and Student's t tests were used to evaluate scale performance. The mean age of enrollees was 64 years, and the mean hernia size was 239 cm(2). Eleven patients were lost to follow-up, and seven patients died of other causes. All remaining patients were followed for two years. There was one incarceration during the follow-up period. There was no deterioration in the AAS score (baseline vs 24 months = 28 vs 25, P = 0.60). There was deterioration of the physical functioning dimension of the SF-36 (baseline vs 24 months = 40 vs 32, P < 0.01), but the mental functioning dimension was improved (45 vs 51; P = 0.01). Watchful waiting was a safe option for patients in this study with ventral hernias. PMID:24666865

The Ozone Watch, initiated in March, 1992, is a weekly bulletin describing the state of the ozone layer over Canada. The UV-B advisory program, which started in May, 1992, produces daily forecasts of clear-sky UV-B radiation. The forecast procedures use daily ozone measurements from the eight-station monitoring network, the output from the Canadian operational forecast model and a UV-B algorithm based on three years of spectral UV-B measurements with the Brewer spectrophotometer.

This overview of 25 monoclonal antibody (mAb) and 5 Fc fusion protein therapeutics provides brief descriptions of the candidates, recently published clinical study results and on-going Phase 3 studies. In alphanumeric order, the 2011 therapeutic antibodies to watch list comprises AIN-457, bapineuzumab, brentuximab vedotin, briakinumab, dalotuzumab, epratuzumab, farletuzumab, girentuximab (WX-G250), naptumomab estafenatox, necitumumab, obinutuzumab, otelixizumab, pagibaximab, pertuzumab, ramucirumab, REGN88, reslizumab, solanezumab, T1h , teplizumab, trastuzumab emtansine, tremelimumab, vedolizumab, zalutumumab and zanolimumab. In alphanumeric order, the 2011 Fc fusion protein therapeutics to watch list comprises aflibercept, AMG-386, atacicept, Factor VIII and Factor IX-Fc. Commercially-sponsored mAb and Fc fusion therapeutics that have progressed only as far as Phase 2/3 or 3 were included. Candidates undergoing regulatory review or products that have been approved may also be in Phase 3 studies, but these were excluded. Due to the large body of primary literature about the candidates, only selected references are given and results from recent publications and articles that were relevant to Phase 3 studies are emphasized. Current as of September 2010, the information presented here will serve as a baseline against which future progress in the development of antibody-based therapeutics can be measured. PMID:21051951

This overview of 25 monoclonal antibody (mAb) and five Fc fusion protein therapeutics provides brief descriptions of the candidates, recently published clinical study results and on-going Phase 3 studies. In alphanumeric order, the 2011 therapeutic antibodies to watch list comprises AIN-457, bapineuzumab, brentuximab vedotin, briakinumab, dalotuzumab, epratuzumab, farletuzumab, girentuximab (WX-G250), naptumomab estafenatox, necitumumab, obinutuzumab, otelixizumab, pagibaximab, pertuzumab, ramucirumab, REGN88, reslizumab, solanezumab, T1h, teplizumab, trastuzumab emtansine, tremelimumab, vedolizumab, zalutumumab and zanolimumab. In alphanumeric order, the 2011 Fc fusion protein therapeutics to watch list comprises aflibercept, AMG-386, atacicept, Factor VIII-Fc and Factor IX-Fc. Commercially-sponsored mAb and Fc fusion therapeutics that have progressed only as far as Phase 2/3 or 3 were included. Candidates undergoing regulatory review or products that have been approved may also be in Phase 3 studies, but these were excluded. Due to the large body of primary literature about the candidates, only selected references are given and results from recent publications and articles that were relevant to Phase 3 studies are emphasized. Current as of September 2010, the information presented here will serve as a baseline against which future progress in the development of antibody-based therapeutics can be measured. PMID:21051951

Computer `Arithmetic' #12;Â· Fortran does this ok, just need to watch out for numbers (including - beyond the range of the fp numbers Â· Underflow - closer to zero than representable, usually reset to zero.Watch DIVISION! It takes multiple clock cycles. If you divide by the same number frequently, compute and save

Computer `Arithmetic' #12;Â· Fortran does this ok, just need to watch out for numbers (including representable, usually reset to zero.Watch for division by an underflow!!! Â· Not mathematically permissible-bound program Code Optimization #12;Â· AVOID DIVISION! It takes multiple clock cycles. If you divide by the same

Series of international studies have shown that subtitled television programs provide a rich context for foreign language acquisition. This study investigated whether incidental language acquisition occurs from watching a television program with/without subtitles. Children in the experimental conditions watch: (a) a 15 minute snapshot of a well…

...general communications using digital selective calling and the watch on 156.800 MHz is provided so that ships not fitted with DSC will be able to call GMDSS ships, thus providing a link between GMDSS and non-GMDSS compliant ships. The watch on...

...false Watch required by the Great Lakes Radio Agreement. 80.308 Section 80.308...COMMISSION (CONTINUED) SAFETY AND SPECIAL RADIO SERVICES STATIONS IN THE MARITIME SERVICES...308 Watch required by the Great Lakes Radio Agreement. (a) Each ship of...

Improving Video Classification via YouTube Video Co-Watch Data John R. Zhang Dept. Computer exploits YouTube video co-watch data to improve the performance of a video taxonomic classi- fication on- line through sites such as YouTube1 . Its applications are of Work done as an intern at Google

Abstract. WatchMe is a personal communicator with context awareness in a wristwatch form; it is meant to keep intimate friends and family always connected via awareness cues and text, voice instant message, or synchronous voice connectivity. Sensors worn with the watch track location (via GPS), acceleration, and speech activity; this is classified and conveyed to the other party, where it

In this article, we describe the development of a mobile butterfly-watching learning (BWL) system to realize outdoor independent learning for mobile learners. The mobile butterfly-watching learning system was designed in a wireless mobile ad-hoc learning environment. This is first result to provide a cognitive tool with supporting the independent…

An ultrasonic motor was developed for use in new generation watches and portable information devices. This motor shows promise as a new principle actuator. Measuring 10 mm in diameter and 4.5 mm thick, this ultrasonic motor is the world's smallest for practical use. Powered by a single lithium coin battery, this motor is expected to be applied to a broad range of miniature devices, including watches. The structure of the motor makes it possible to reduce its size and drive frequency. This motor was used to incorporate a silent alarm into an analog quartz watch. Unlike conventional electronic alarm watches, an eccentric weight rotates intermittently at high speed generating gentle vibration which notifies the wearer. The silent alarm analog quartz watch which incorporates the new ultrasonic motor, as well as the influence of design parameters on the performance of the ultrasonic motor, are described.

As unintentional injuries continue to be the leading cause of hospitalization and death for toddlers between the ages of 1 and 4, the Centers for Disease Control has argued that child supervision is a key factor in reducing these injuries and fatalities. This article focuses on the affective relationships in the concept of supervision and practice of watching as an injury prevention method. Three parts frame our argument. First, we describe how watching is an ordinary affect. Second, as part of the ethos of caring, watching is embedded in a temporal frame of anticipation and gives rise to an affectsphere of watching and to a parents’ subjectivity as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ supervisors. Third, these affective relationships generate seemingly contradictory outcomes wherein children are expected to gain independence and experience injury. The affective qualities of watching provide a critique of the individualizing forces of supervision and an analysis of subjectivities generated by gender and class. PMID:25114724

The International Halley Watch was established to coordinate, collect, archive, and distribute the scientific data from Comet P/Halley that would be obtained from both the ground and space. This paper describes one of the end products of that effort, namely the IHW Digital Archive. The IHW Digital Archive consists of 26 CD-ROM's containing over 32 gigabytes of data from the 9 IHW disciplines as well as data from the 5 spacecraft missions flown to comet P/Haley and P/Giacobini-Zinner. The total archive contains over 50,000 observations by 1,500 observers from at least 40 countries. The first 24 CD's, which are currently available, contain data from the 9 IHW disciplines. The two remaining CD's will have the spacecraft data and should be available within the next year. A test CD-ROM of these data has been created and is currently under review.

The potential feasibility of using Ni/Cd cells as energy storage devices in electronic wrist watches powered by solar cells was evaluated. It is shown that the necessary special requirements can only be met, if the following conditions are fulfilled: a minimal capacity of 35 mAh in a cell of the dimensions 11,4 mm in diameter and 5,1 mm in height; and a hermetic seal to prevent leakage. Long periods of overcharge with currents higher than 50 microns must be avoided in order to achieve a service life of 10 years. The minimal charge current must be 350 mA to provide an autonomy of 6 months, with a discharge current of 5 micro A.

The start of the new year signals that it is time for mAbs' annual review of the therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) in active Phase 2/3 or Phase 3 clinical studies. The entire clinical pipeline currently includes ~350 mAbs, but most of these are in early development. As of the beginning of 2013, our "Antibodies to watch" list includes 28 single mAbs and one mAb mixture that are undergoing evaluation in Phase 3 studies for inflammatory or immunological disorders, cancers, high cholesterol, osteoporosis, Alzheimer disease and infectious disease. In alphabetical order, the 28 mabs are alirocumab, AMG 145, elotuzumab, epratuzumab, farletuzumab, gantenerumab, gevokizumab, inotuzumab ozogamicin, itolizumab, ixekizumab, lebrikizumab, mepolizumab, naptumomab estafenatox, necitumumab, nivolumab, obinutuzumab, ocrelizumab, onartuzumab, racotumomab, ramucirumab, reslizumab, romosozumab, sarilumab, secukinumab, sirukumab, solanezumab, tabalumab, and vedolizumab. The mixture of actoxumab and bezlotoxumab is being evaluated in two Phase 3 studies as a treatment for Clostridium difficile infection. PMID:23254906

The start of the new year signals that it is time for mAbs’ annual review of the therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) in active Phase 2/3 or Phase 3 clinical studies. The entire clinical pipeline currently includes ~350 mAbs, but most of these are in early development. As of the beginning of 2013, our “Antibodies to watch” list includes 28 single mAbs and one mAb mixture that are undergoing evaluation in Phase 3 studies for inflammatory or immunological disorders, cancers, high cholesterol, osteoporosis, Alzheimer disease and infectious disease. In alphabetical order, the 28 mabs are alirocumab, AMG 145, elotuzumab, epratuzumab, farletuzumab, gantenerumab, gevokizumab, inotuzumab ozogamicin, itolizumab, ixekizumab, lebrikizumab, mepolizumab, naptumomab estafenatox, necitumumab, nivolumab, obinutuzumab, ocrelizumab, onartuzumab, racotumomab, ramucirumab, reslizumab, romosozumab, sarilumab, secukinumab, sirukumab, solanezumab, tabalumab, and vedolizumab. The mixture of actoxumab and bezlotoxumab is being evaluated in two Phase 3 studies as a treatment for Clostridium difficile infection. PMID:23254906

The primary purposes of the Halley Watch have been to promote Halley observations, coordinate and standardize the observing where useful, and to archive the results in a database readily accessible to cometary scientists. The intention of IHW is to store the observations themselves, along with any information necessary to allow users to understand and use the data, but to exclude interpretations of these data. Each of the archives produced by the IHW will appear in two versions: a printed archive and a digital archive on CD-ROMs. The archive is expected to have a very long lifetime. The IHW has already produced an archive for P/Crommelin. This consists of one printed volume and two 1600 bpi tapes. The Halley archive will contain at least twenty gigabytes of information.

Watching a successful launch of Space Shuttle Discovery from the roof of the Launch Control Center are (left to right) U.S. President Bill Clinton, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, Astronaut Robert Cabana and NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin. This was the first launch of a Space Shuttle to be viewed by President Clinton, or any President to date. They attended the launch to witness the return to space of American legend John H. Glenn Jr., payload specialist on mission STS-95. Cabana will command the crew of STS-88, the first Space Shuttle mission to carry hardware to space for the assembly of the International Space Station, targeted for liftoff on Dec. 3.

Watching a successful launch of Space Shuttle Discovery from the roof of the Launch Control Center are (left to right) Astronaut Eileen Collins (in flight suit) with unidentified companions, NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin, Astronaut Robert Cabana, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, and U.S. President Bill Clinton. This was the first launch of a Space Shuttle to be viewed by President Clinton, or any President to date. They attended the launch to witness the return to space of American legend John H. Glenn Jr., payload specialist on mission STS-95. Collins will command the crew of STS-93, the first woman to hold that position. Cabana will command the crew of STS-88, the first Space Shuttle mission to carry hardware to space for the assembly of the International Space Station, targeted for liftoff on Dec. 3.

Watchfully waiting involves monitoring a patient's health state over time and deciding whether to undertake a medical intervention, or to postpone it and continue observing the patient. In this paper, we consider the timing of medical intervention as an optimal stopping problem. The development of the patient's health state in the absence of intervention follows a stochastic process (geometric Brownian motion). Spontaneous recovery occurs in case the absorbing state of "good health" is reached. We determine optimal threshold values for initiating the intervention, and derive comparative statics results with respect to the model parameters. In particular, an increase in the degree of uncertainty over the patient's development in most cases makes waiting more attractive. However, this may not hold if the patient's health state has a tendency to improve. The model can be extended to allow for risk aversion and for sudden, Poisson-type shocks to the patient's health state. PMID:22425768

Obesity is a serious and growing health concern worldwide. Watching television (TV) represents a condition during which many habitually eat, irrespective of hunger level. However, as of yet, little is known about how the content of television programs being watched differentially impacts concurrent eating behavior. In this study, eighteen normal-weight female students participated in three counter-balanced experimental conditions, including a ‘Boring’ TV condition (art lecture), an ‘Engaging’ TV condition (Swedish TV comedy series), and a no TV control condition during which participants read (a text on insects living in Sweden). Throughout each condition participants had access to both high-calorie (M&Ms) and low-calorie (grapes) snacks. We found that, relative to the Engaging TV condition, Boring TV encouraged excessive eating (+52% g, P?=?0.009). Additionally, the Engaging TV condition actually resulted in significantly less concurrent intake relative to the control ‘Text’ condition (?35% g, P?=?0.05). This intake was driven almost entirely by the healthy snack, grapes; however, this interaction did not reach significance (P?=?0.07). Finally, there was a significant correlation between how bored participants were across all conditions, and their concurrent food intake (beta?=?0.317, P?=?0.02). Intake as measured by kcals was similarly patterned but did not reach significance. These results suggest that, for women, different TV programs elicit different levels of concurrent food intake, and that the degree to which a program is engaging (or alternately, boring) is related to that intake. Additionally, they suggest that emotional content (e.g. boring vs. engaging) may be more associated than modality (e.g. TV vs. text) with concurrent intake. PMID:24983245

...endorsement as Officer in Charge of an Engineering Watch (OICEW) in a manned engineroom...endorsement as Officer in Charge of an Engineering Watch (OICEW) in a manned engineroom...resource management (ERM). (v) Engineering terminology and shipboard...

...for an STCW Endorsement as Officer in Charge of a Navigational Watch (OICNW) AGENCY...qualification for a STCW endorsement as Officer in Charge of a Navigational Watch (OICNW). The...for an STCW endorsement for Officer in Charge of a Navigational Watch (OICNW)....

We present 3rd interplanetary network (IPN) localization data for 56 gamma-ray bursts in the GRANAT/ WATCH catalog which occurred between 1990 November and 1994 September. These localizations are obtained by triangulation using various combinations of spacecraft in the IPN, which consisted of Ulysses, BATSE, Pioneer Venus Orbiter (PVO), Mars Observer (MO), WATCH, and PHEBUS. The intersections of the triangulation annuli with the WATCH error circles produce error boxes with areas as small as 16 sq. arcmin., reducing the sizes of the error circles by up to a factor of 800.

The International Jupiter Watch is a program for the encouragement and coordination of the study of temporal variations in the Jovian system. It consists of six discipline working groups concerned with: the Io torus under N. Schneider; the Jovian atmosphere under R. West; the magnetosphere and radio emissions under I. de Peter and M. Klein; aurora under J. Caldwell; the Galilean satellites under W. Sinton and J. Goguen; and laboratory measurement and theory under B. Lutz. To date the IJW has held two workshops and selected several Jupiter Watch periods for coordinated observations. The next Jupiter Watch workshop is tentatively scheduled for 1990 in association with the next COSPAR meeting.

This thesis consists of four parts. Part one is a written dialogue in which I respond to the words and the thoughts of the photographer, Diane Arbus. Through responding to Arbus' thoughts, I had hoped to make clear my own ...

The commercial pipeline of monoclonal antibodies is highly dynamic, with a multitude of transitions occurring during the year as product candidates advance through the clinical phases and onto the market. The data presented here add to that provided in the extensive "Antibodies to watch in 2014" report published in the January/February 2014 issue of mAbs. Recent phase transition data suggest that 2014 may be a banner year for first approvals of antibody therapeutics. As of May 2014, three products, ramucirumab (Cyramza®), siltuximab (Sylvant®) and vedolizumab (Entyvio™), had been granted first approvals in the United States, and four additional antibody therapeutics (secukinumab, dinutuximab, nivolumab, pembrolizumab) are undergoing regulatory review in either the US or the European Union. Other notable events include the start of first Phase 3 studies for seven antibody therapeutics (dupilumab, SA237, etrolizumab, MPDL3280A, bavituximab, clivatuzumab tetraxetan, blinatumomab). Relevant data for these product candidates are summarized, and metrics for antibody therapeutics development are discussed. PMID:24846335

In a quantum world, a watched arrow never moves. This is the quantum Zeno effect. Repeatedly asking a quantum system `are you still in your initial state?' blocks its coherent evolution through measurement back-action. Quantum Zeno dynamics (QZD; refs , ) gives more freedom to the system. Instead of pinning it to a single state, it sets a border in its evolution space. Repeatedly asking the system `are you beyond the border?' makes this limit impenetrable. As the border can be designed by choosing the measured observable, QZD allows one to dynamically tailor the system's Hilbert space. Recent proposals, particularly in the cavity quantum electrodynamics context, highlight the interest of QZD for quantum state engineering tasks, which are the key to quantum-enabled technologies and quantum information processing. We report the observation of QZD in the 51-dimensional Hilbert space of a large angular momentum J = 25. Continuous selective interrogation limits the evolution of this angular momentum to an adjustable multi-dimensional subspace. This confined dynamics leads to the production of non-classical `Schrödinger cat' states, quantum superpositions of angular momenta pointing in different directions. These states are promising for sensitive metrology of electric and magnetic fields. This QZD approach could also be generalized to cavity and circuit quantum electrodynamics experiments by replacing the angular momentum with a photonic harmonic oscillator.

Some 34 radio observatories in 18 countries are participating in the Radio Science Net of the International Halley Watch. Approximately 100 radio astronomers are contributing to this effort, which has included observations of comets P/Crommelin and P/Giacobini-Zinner as well as P/Halley. It is clear that the record of data for the 18 cm OH ground state lambda doublet, which provides fundamental information on the gas production rate, kinematics, and potentially the magnetic field in the coma, will be vastly more complete and of higher accuracy than has even been obtained on any previous comet. The coverage by a number of radio observatories will enable short period variations to be studied and correlated with simultaneous data obtained at other wavelengths. Likewise, the first definitive detection of the important parent molecule hydrogen cyanide in a comet was obtained and is being studied by groups in the United States, Sweden, and France. The first detection of the comet with the Very Large Array telescope operated by NRAO was achieved and has produced exciting results for the distribution of emission at high angular resolution from the OH radical. At this writing data are still being obtained and being processed, and there are still strong indications that exciting information will be obtained from radar studies of P/Halley and from searches for additional parent molecules.

Some 34 radio observatories in 18 countries are participating in the Radio Science Net of the International Halley Watch. Approximately 100 radio astronomers are contributing to this effort, which has included observations of comets P/Crommelin and P/Giacobini-Zinner as well as P/Halley. It is clear that the record of data for the 18 cm OH ground state lambda doublet, which provides fundamental information on the gas production rate, kinematics, and potentially the magnetic field in the coma, will be vastly more complete and of higher accuracy than has even been obtained on any previous comet. The coverage by a number of radio observatories will enable short period variations to be studied and correlated with simultaneous data obtained at other wavelengths. Likewise, the first definitive detection of the important parent molecule hydrogen cyanide in a comet was obtained and is being studied by groups in the United States, Sweden, and France. The first detection of the comet with the Very Large Array telescope operated by NRAO was achieved and has produced exciting results for the distribution of emission at high angular resolution from the OH radical. At this writing data are still being obtained and being processed, and there are still strong indications that exciting information will be obtained from radar studies of P/Halley and from searches for additional parent molecules.

in bold face, derived types in typewriter type, variables in italics, and Fortran code segments in typewriter type. 2 Using StopWatch This section briefly describes the operations that can be performed

Television watching has been positively associated with overeating and obesity. How popular food-related television shows affects eating behavior has not been examined. An experimental study was conducted to examine how exposure to a food-related television program affects amount and type of food consumed in adults (N=80). Participants were randomized to watch a cooking or nature television program and were then presented with 800 total calories of chocolate covered candies, cheese curls, and carrots. Food was weighed before and after the ad libitum eating session to determine amount consumed. After controlling for dietary restraint, hunger and food preference, significantly more chocolate covered candies were consumed among individuals who watched the cooking program compared to the nature program. No significant differences between conditions were found for overall caloric intake or for cheese curl or carrot consumption. Findings suggest that watching food-related television programs may affect eating behavior and has implications for obesity prevention and intervention efforts. PMID:23154219

...Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Patient Safety Organizations: Voluntary Relinquishment...from HealthWatch, Inc. of its status as a Patient Safety Organization (PSO). The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005...

Purpose To investigate the effect of watching 3-dimensional (3D) television (TV) on refractive error in children. Methods Sixty healthy volunteers, aged 6 to 12 years, without any ocular abnormalities other than refractive error were recruited for this study. They watched 3D TV for 50 minutes at a viewing distance of 2.8 meters. The image disparity of the 3D contents was from -1 to 1 degree. Refractive errors were measured both before and immediately after watching TV and were rechecked after a 10-minute rest period. The refractive errors before and after watching TV were compared. The amount of refractive change was also compared between myopes and controls. The refractive error of the participants who showed a myopic shift immediately after watching TV were compared across each time point to assure that the myopic shift persisted after a 10-minute rest. Results The mean age of the participants was 9.23 ± 1.75 years. The baseline manifest refractive error was -1.70 ± 1.79 (-5.50 to +1.25) diopters. The refractive errors immediately after watching and after a 10-minute rest were -1.75 ± 1.85 and -1.69 ± 1.80 diopters, respectively, which were not different from the baseline values. Myopic participants (34 participants), whose spherical equivalent was worse than -0.75 diopters, also did not show any significant refractive change after watching 3D TV. A myopic shift was observed in 31 participants with a mean score of 0.29 ± 0.23 diopters, which resolved after a 10-minute rest. Conclusions Watching properly made 3D content on a 3D TV for 50 minutes with a 10-minute intermission at more than 2.8 meters of viewing distance did not affect the refractive error of children.

INTRODUCTION: Several recent studies have noted that African Americans disproportionately receive “watchful waiting” for the initial management\\u000a of their prostate cancer. To determine whether racial\\/ethnic differences in the receipt of watchful waiting are explained\\u000a by differences in clinical presentation and life expectancy at the time of diagnosis, we examined Surveillance, Epidemiology,\\u000a and End Results (SEER)-Medicare data for men diagnosed with

The research presented was conducted as part of Watershed Watch, a two-week hands-on summer program for undeclared entry-level undergraduates, designed to recruit and retain students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The research presented here was conducted on cypress knees of different ages from the campus of Elizabeth City State University in northeastern North Carolina. Samples were collected from Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum) knees and thin sections were cut from the distal, medial, and proximal regions of each knee. Three specimens of each of young and old knees were analyzed. Structural differences in the location and amount of wood (secondary xylem), parenchyma, and aerenchyma tissues were compared in order to determine if both younger and older knees function as pneumatophores, and if only the younger knees are capable of providing oxygen to roots in waterlogged soils. Our findings include: younger knees have the most aerenchyma tissue (living cells associated with air canals) and a thinner bark (likely pervious) on the distal tips. The older knees are more woody with distinct growth rings, exhibit less aerenchyma tissue, and have a much thicker (likely impervious) bark at the distal tip. The conclusion regarding the purpose of cypress knees is that the younger knees likely function as aerating organs (peumatophores) for the growing roots tips, while the older knees have reduced amounts of aerenchyma tissue and a thicker bark, and therefore may lose the ability to function as an aerating organ for the older roots.

P2.2 A LOOK AT THE TORNADO REPORT AND WATCH CLIMATOLOGY FOR THE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES FROM 1986 * This study is an update to the Imy et al (1998) tornado watch climatology. Tornado watch issuances are examined for the two 10-year periods 1986-1995 and 1996-2005. Tornado watches typically cover roughly 65

Polysomnography is currently considered as the gold standard for the diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS). But high expense and the backlog of the sleep centers have resulted in a search for an alternative method of diagnosis. The aim of this study is to assess the efficacy and reliability of Watch PAT as an alternate option in OSAS diagnosis. The patients have worn a Watch PAT(®) 200 device in the sleep laboratory during a standard polysomnography. The correlation in REM and Non-REM AHI scores, sleep periods and the mean O2 saturation percentage between Watch PAT and PSG sleep studies were assessed. There was a statistically significant very strong correlation between PSG and Watch PAT AHI scores (Spearman's rho = 0.802 p Watch PAT was 463.06 ± 37.08 and 469.33 ± 72.81 min, respectively, and there was no statistically significant difference (p = 0.068). However, there was a statistically significant difference between two methods regarding the average sleep time and REM sleep period. No statistically significant difference was revealed in the mean O2 saturation percentage (p Watch PAT is an efficient device and is considered to be an adjunctive diagnostic method for PSG in diagnosis of OSAS. PMID:24838359

There has been an increasing interest in understanding the regulating mechanisms of surface water dissolved organic carbon (DOC) the last decade. A majority of this recent work has been based on individual well characterized research catchments or on regional synoptic datasets combined with readily available landscape and climatic variables. However, as the production and transport of DOC primarily is a function of hydro-climatic conditions a better description of catchment hydrological functioning across large geographic regions would be favorable for moving the mechanistic understanding forward. To do this we report from a first assessment of catchment DOC within the international inter-catchment comparison program North-Watch (http://www.abdn.ac.uk/northwatch/). North-Watch includes long-term research catchments ranging from northern temperate regions to the boreal and sub-arctic biomes with the aim to better understand the variable hydrological and biogeochemical responses in Northern catchments to climate change. The North-Watch catchments are located in Sweden (Krycklan), Scotland (Mharcaidh, Girnock and Strontian), the US (Sleepers River and HJ Andrews) and Canada (Catamaran, Dorset and Wolf Creek). The annual average DOC concentration in the nine catchments investigated were directly linked to hydro-climatic influences (e.g. temperature, water storage) and landscape configuration. In general, the DOC concentration followed a parabolic shape with temperature, where the highest concentrations were found in the boreal and near boreal sites and with the lowest concentrations in the temperate and sub-arctic catchments. The between catchment variability in DOC concentration could also be explained by catchment water storage and amount of wetlands in the catchment. Whereas there is a mechanistic link between long-term climatic conditions and the areal coverage of wetlands, the total catchment storage of water is more strongly linked to topography, parent material and soil depth. The result from this analysis will serve as a conceptual framework for understanding biogeochemical response to environmental change across northern catchments. The next step in this work will be to include more detailed comparisons of the role catchment hydrological functioning for explaining the patterns and dynamics of catchment DOC of these northern watersheds.

The Forest Watch Program is a K-12 science outreach program developed at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) in 1991. The program engages pre-college teachers and their students in assisting researchers at UNH in the assessment of the state-of-health of white pine (Pinus strobus), a known bio- indicator species for exposure to elevated levels of ground-level ozone. Students participate in three types of activities: 1. selection, collection, and analysis of needle samples from five permanently tagged white pine trees near their school; 2. Study of needles in their classroom and sending a set of needles to UNH for spectral analysis; and 3. analysis of remote sensing data (Landsat TM) provided of their local area using freeware software (MultiSpec). Student-derived foliar symptomology, needle length, needle retention, and tree biometrics, plus the spectral indices, allow UNH researchers to characterize annual variations in tree state-of-health, and to correlate that state-of-health with annual summer ozone levels collected by the EPA and state environmental monitoring networks. The results suggest that regional air quality and state- of-health of trees has improved since 1991. Annual student data and the yearly spectral variations, for the same trees, suggest that white pine health has improved dramatically since 1997/8. This improvement in tree health corresponds with improved regional air quality. An evaluation of student data reliability has been conducted and suggests that the DBH measurements are a most reliable indicator of tree growth. Student data are more reliable if multiple sets of measurements are made and averaged together, compared with single sets of measurements. Based on both student data and spectral analysis of student-provided branch samples, the greatest damage (chlorosis) occurs in trees located along the seacoast areas. Participation in Forest Watch introduces students to the scientific method via an authentic research program. The program is designed in partnership with participating teachers, and thus meets New England state science and mathematics curricula for K-12 education. Student participation in Forest Watch has resulted in an improved understanding of inter-annual white pine state-of-health response to improved air quality across the New England region.

CropWatch is a monitoring system developed and operated by the Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth (Chinese Academy of Sciences) to provide global-scale crop information. Now in its 15th year of operation, CropWatch was modified several times to be a timely, comprehensive and independent global agricultural monitoring system using advanced remote sensing technology. Currently CropWatch is being upgraded with new indicators based on new sensors, especially those on board of China Environmental Satellite (HJ-1 CCD), the Medium Resolution Spectral Imager (MERSI) on Chinese meteorological satellite (FY-3A) and cloud classification products of FY-2. With new satellite data, CropWatch will generate new indicators such as fallow land ratio (FLR), crop condition for irrigated (CCI) and non-irrigated (CCNI) areas separately, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), radiation use efficiency for the photosynthetically active radiation (RUEPAR) and cropping index (CI) with crop rotation information (CRI). In this paper, the methods for monitoring the new indicators are applied to the North China Plain which is one of the major grain producing areas in China. This paper shows the preliminary results of the new indicators and methods; they still need to be thoroughly validated before being incorporated into the operational CropWatch system. In the future, the new and improved indicators will help us to better understand the global situation of food security.

Fast flux networks represent a special type of botnets that are used to provide highly available web services to a backend server, which usually hosts malicious content. Detection of fast flux networks continues to be a challenging issue because of the similar behavior between these networks and other legitimate infrastructures, such as CDNs and server farms. This paper proposes Fast Flux Watch (FF-Watch), a mechanism for online detection of fast flux agents. FF-Watch is envisioned to exist as a software agent at leaf routers that connect stub networks to the Internet. The core mechanism of FF-Watch is based on the inherent feature of fast flux networks: flux agents within stub networks take the role of relaying client requests to point-of-sale websites of spam campaigns. The main idea of FF-Watch is to correlate incoming TCP connection requests to flux agents within a stub network with outgoing TCP connection requests from the same agents to the point-of-sale website. Theoretical and traffic trace driven analysis shows that the proposed mechanism can be utilized to efficiently detect fast flux agents within a stub network. PMID:25685515

Fast flux networks represent a special type of botnets that are used to provide highly available web services to a backend server, which usually hosts malicious content. Detection of fast flux networks continues to be a challenging issue because of the similar behavior between these networks and other legitimate infrastructures, such as CDNs and server farms. This paper proposes Fast Flux Watch (FF-Watch), a mechanism for online detection of fast flux agents. FF-Watch is envisioned to exist as a software agent at leaf routers that connect stub networks to the Internet. The core mechanism of FF-Watch is based on the inherent feature of fast flux networks: flux agents within stub networks take the role of relaying client requests to point-of-sale websites of spam campaigns. The main idea of FF-Watch is to correlate incoming TCP connection requests to flux agents within a stub network with outgoing TCP connection requests from the same agents to the point-of-sale website. Theoretical and traffic trace driven analysis shows that the proposed mechanism can be utilized to efficiently detect fast flux agents within a stub network. PMID:25685515

The variability of long-range dust transport events was investigated at Mt. Cimone (2165 m a.s.l., 44°11'N, 10°42'E), the highest peak of the Italian northern Apennines. This measurement site, which can be considered well representative of the Mediterranean basin/southern Europe background conditions, represents one of the first mountain ridges that Saharan air masses run into along the northward displacement towards Europe. Dust transport events (DTEs) have been identified since August 2002 by analysing in-situ coarse particle number concentrations as a function of numerical outputs from a lagrangian model(FLEXTRA). A number of 380 DTEs were identified in the period 2002 -2012, corresponding to 15% of the investigated period, with a peak of frequency in spring-summer. The impact of the dust transport on aerosol optical properties have been also investigated. On average, both scattering and absorption coefficient showed an increase in presence of dust, while the total aerosol particle number concentration showed a decrease. In this work we will provide hints about long-term variability of DTE frequency and intensity at CMN. The analysis of 3D air-mass back-trajectories allows to provide information about the variability of transport patterns and source regions for the mineral dust at CMN, also permitting to obtain a statistical climatology about the optical and microphysical properties of the aerosol as a function of the air-mass origin.

An optimized system, comprising watch motor and an Integrated Current (IC) with motor current regulation enables a reduction of the system current (IC and motor) up to 50% when compared to a solution with no motor current regulation. This leads to a significantly longer battery life, or alternatively permits the development of even flatter modules, and reduces the noise level. This kind of system improvement is not only applicable to watches, but also to clocks (IC with motor current regulation). However only watch applications are considered. In order to cover the complete spectrum of application areas, two algorithms are offered for motor current regulation. These can for example supply the means to system optimization for 1.5 V and 3 V applications.

Sandia National Laboratories has developd a remote sensor package that provides a low-cost, convenient way of monitoring item movement. Originally, the package was intended for use in valve monitoring, but it is now possible to use it in any sensor application where hardware installation is impractical or uneconomical. Full system implementation includes a receiver/controller which correlates the arrival time of rf signals generated by item-monitoring transmitters to increase communication security. Wireless Alarm Transmission of Container Handling (WATCH) is such a system. One important application of WATCH is in storage vaults where there are a number of material containers. Applying WATCH to inventory control reduces inventory workload and employee exposure rates; the system also provides quick access to inventory information by interfacing the system with plant site computer systems.

Background Semen quality appears to have declined over the past decades but reasons for this decline are unresolved. The concurrent increase in sedentary behavior may be a contributing factor. The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship of physical activity and television (TV) watching with sperm parameters in a population of young, healthy men Methods Men aged 18-22 years (n=189) from the Rochester Young Men's Study (2009-2010) were used in this analysis. Physical activity (hours/week of moderate and vigorous exercise) and TV watching (hours/week of TV, video, or DVD watching) over the past 3 months was assessed via questionnaire. Semen quality was assessed by sperm concentration, motility, morphology, and total sperm count. Results Sperm concentration and total sperm count were directly related to physical activity after multivariable adjustment (p-trend=0.01 and 0.04); men in the highest quartile of moderate-to-vigorous activity (?15 hours/week) had 73% (95% CI 15 to 160%) higher sperm concentration than men in the lowest quartile (< 5 hours/week). TV watching was inversely associated with sperm concentration and total sperm count in multivariable analyses (p-trend=0.05 and 0.06); men in the highest quartile of TV watching (>20 hours/week) had 44% (95% CI 15 to 63%) lower sperm concentration than men in the lowest quartile (0 hours/week). These measures of physical and leisure time activities were not significantly associated with sperm motility or morphology. Conclusions In this population of healthy men, higher moderate-to-vigorous activity and less TV watching were significantly associated with higher total sperm count and sperm concentration. PMID:23380634

Several watch and warning systems have been established in the world in recent years to prevent the effects of heat waves. However, many of these approaches can be applied only in regions with perfect conditions (e.g., enough data, stationary series or homogeneous regions). Furthermore, a number of these approaches do not account for possible trend in mortality and/or temperature series, whereas others are generally not adapted to regions with low population densities or low daily mortality levels. In addition, prediction based on multiple days preceding the event can be less accurate if it attributes the same importance to each of these days, since the forecasting accuracy actually decreases with the period. The aim of the present study was to identify appropriate indicators as well as flexible and general thresholds that can be applied to a variety of regions and conditions. From a practical point of view, the province of Québec constitutes a typical case where a number of the above-mentioned constraints are present. On the other hand, until recently, the province's watch and warning system was based on a study conducted in 2005, covering only the city of Montreal and applied to the whole province. The proposed approach is applied to each one of the other health regions of the province often experiencing low daily counts of mortality and presenting trends. The first constraint led to grouping meteorologically homogeneous regions across the province in which the number of deaths is sufficient to carry out the appropriate data analyses. In each region, mortality trends are taken into account. In addition, the proposed indicators are defined by a 3-day weighted mean of maximal and minimal temperatures. The sensitivity of the results to the inclusion of traumatic deaths is also checked. The application shows that the proposed method improved the results in terms of sensitivity, specificity and number of yearly false alarms, compared to those of the existing and other classical approaches. An additional criterion based on the Humidex is applied in a second step and a local validation is applied to historical observations at reference forecasting stations. An integrated heat health watch and warning system with thresholds that are adapted to the regional climate has thus been established for each sub-region of the province of Quebec and became operational in June 2010. PMID:23100100

This study reduced the disruptive behaviors of students in two elementary physical education classes: a regular fourth-grade class comprised of 30 students and an alternative education class containing 14 fourth- and fifth-grade boys with severe behavior problems. Using a multiple baseline design, we introduced a modified time-out procedure called "Sit and Watch." The procedure reduced the frequency of disruptive behaviors by 95%. Sit and Watch proved to be socially acceptable to parents, school personnel, and the physical education teacher. PMID:2249970

Images of comets de Vico in 1995, Hyakutake in 1996, and Hale-Bopp in 1997 taken by observers in the Ulysses Comet Watch clearly show plasma tail properties reflecting the demarcation of the solar wind into distinct equatorial and polar regions with the boundary determined by the maximum extent of the heliospheric current sheet (HCS). Generally, (1) comet plasma tails in the polar region appear relatively undisturbed (as expected from a steady solar wind), while comet tails in the equatorial region appear disturbed (as expected from a highly varying solar wind); (2) disconnection events (DEs) are observed only in the equatorial region where comets pierce the HCS; (3) the position angle of the plasma tail is consistent with a solar wind speed of 750 km s -1 in the polar region and an average solar wind speed of 450 km s -1 in the equatorial region. While the paradigm seems firm, it was established during a limited range of the solar cycle, and an extension to other ranges is desirable. We test this paradigm using the published record for essentially the entire 20th century. The catalogs of M. J. S. Belton and J. C. Brandt (1966, Astrophys. J. Suppl.13, 125-332)—giving comet tail orientations and descriptive data—and M. B. Niedner (1981, Astrophys. J. Suppl.46, 141-157)—giving DE data—were the principal sources. When combined with the DEs in Comet Halley (J. C. Brandt et al. 1999, Icarus137, 69-83) and the Ulysses-era comets, the data set is extensive. Results for the test are as follows: (1) Images of Comet Mrkos (1957d) clearly show the change of appearance from polar to equatorial regions. We discuss the unusual case of Comet Borrelly (1903c) and present an evaluation of the descriptive notes in the Belton and Brandt catalog. (2) The observed latitude envelope of DEs as a function of solar cycle is consistent with the maximum extent of the HCS. The HCS extends to higher latitudes at solar maximum (cf. J. T. Hoeksema 1991, Adv. Space Res.11, (1)15-(1)24; S. T. Suess 1993, Adv. Space Res.13, (9)31-(9)42) and the observed DEs trace this extension. (3) The orientations of the plasma tail can be used to infer the solar-wind speed. Most of the suitable comets in the Belton and Brandt catalog are in the equatorial region, one is in the polar region, and a few cross the equatorial-polar boundary. In all cases, the orientation is consistent with a high-speed solar wind in the polar region and a lower-speed, variable solar wind in the equatorial region. The data available for comets throughout the 20th century are consistent with the Ulysses Comet Watch paradigm. Thus, detailed studies of plasma tails can be used to map the structure of the heliosphere, specifically the location of the HCS and the location of the boundary between the equatorial and the polar regions. We note that data for comets in the polar region are still relatively rare.

...qualify for an STCW endorsement as rating forming part of an engineering watch (RFPEW). 12.609 Section 12.609 Shipping...qualify for an STCW endorsement as rating forming part of an engineering watch (RFPEW). (a) To qualify for an STCW...

- monitoring program to promote awareness of the importance of water quality, reduce nonpoint source pollution management practices to reduce pollutants entering waterways. Florida Keys Water Watch will recruit and trainFLORIDA KEYS WATER WATCH The University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences

Originally published in EarthWatch. October-November 2002 The Termites' Dilemma Scott Turner A termite queen surrounded by her sterile retinue I had an epiphany a few years ago: I realized that there was no such thing as a termite. My epiphany came while trying to decide whether organisms, like termites, or mice

CLIMATE AND PERCEPTION The social impacts of the heatÂ­health watch/warning system in Phoenix specifically, to gauge risk perception and warning response. Consistent with previous research, increased risk perception of heat results in increased response to a warning. Different social factors such as sex, race

-- Alzheimer's disease will affect a greater percentage of Americans. More than 10 million people provide with cognitive impairment, such as Alzheimer's disease and autism spec- trum disorders. CaregiverWatch has Potential Five million Americans have Alzheimer's disease, and 1 in 110 children is diagnosed with autism

The characteristics of construction and operation of electrostatic micromotors built by silicon surface micromachining are summarized. Two particular realizations, the comb and the wobble micromotors, are presented. Their torques are larger than those of other silicon micromotors. Their characteristics are compared with the one's of a watch motor (Lavet motor). The investigation shows that questions on their lifetime, on their

This paper tests whether firm-specific knowledge in terms of capital intensity, product differentiation, and research and development contribute to an improvement in firm efficiency. Based on a representative dataset from the watch and clock industry in southern China, the technical efficiency is estimated using a non-parametric data envelopment analysis approach. Through a Tobit model, we investigate whether a firm's specific

speechome project, a reference to the broad implications of mapping a single unit. And like the human genomeSCIENCE & IDEAS: LANGUAGE: THE HUMAN SPEECHOME PROJECT Someone to watch over me Every move, every study how humans learn to speak - and whether robots can be taught the same way. Susan Pinker reports

School. The constellation Sagittarius emerged in the twilit sky, hanging between Saturn and the nearlyCOPYRIGHT NOTICE: W. Patrick McCray: Keep Watching the Skies! is published by Princeton University their sights set on spotting the earth's newest satellite, one that no eyes had yet seen in the sky. While

Your Passport to the Universe The night sky is alive with many wonders--distant planets, vast star clusters, glowing nebulae, and expansive galaxies, all waiting to be explored. Let respected astronomy writer Philip Harrington introduce you to the universe in Star Watch, a complete beginner's guide to locating, observing, and understanding these celestial objects. You'll start by identifying the surface features

Using ethnographic observation within a number of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) control rooms as evidence, this paper documents the apparently trivial but subjectively meaningful types of technologically mediated interaction taking place between CCTV operators and those watched. It examines the operators' interpretations of the various incidents, individuals and social realities observed. In so doing, the author suggests a number of

WATCH WHO KNEW? ON YAHOO! NEWS: Related Searches: national institute of neurological disorders's a new way to get your news Silk brain implant could aid spinal injuries, epilepsy 56 votesBuzz up! Send to control the rate at which it dissolves. (Reporting by Maggie Fox, Editing by Jackie Frank) 56 votesBuzz up

Zora Neale Hurston's work is lively, lyrical, funny, and poignant, but this consummate literary craftsperson was also a first-rate ethnographer, conducting field work for Franz Boas and for the Works Progress Administration (WPA). "Their Eyes Were Watching God," often acclaimed as Hurston's masterpiece, is perhaps the richest beneficiary of her…

High-performing middle schools are a critical link in the educational continuum. In an effort to stimulate the sluggish reform efforts of middle schools, the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform established the Schools to Watch recognition program. Using responses of school personnel to a statewide survey, this study examined the…

Crewmen of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Wasp gather on deck to watch the recovery of the Gemini 7 spacecraft and astronauts. Note the signs hanging from the railings which say 'Seasons Greetings from WASP' and 'Spirit of 76'.

Crewmen of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Wasp gather on deck to watch the recovery of the Gemini 6 spacecraft and astronauts. Note the signs hanging from the railings which say 'Seasons Greetings from WASP' and 'Spirit of 76'.

...running from the westerly end of the cove in a southeasterly direction to the Watch Hill Yacht Club pier, thence along in front of the piers on the easterly side of the cove northerly to the shore at the north end of the...

High-performing middle schools are a critical link in the educational continuum. In an effort to stimulate the sluggish reform efforts of middle schools, the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform established the Schools to Watch recognition program. Using responses of school personnel to a statewide survey, this study examined the perceived level of implementation of key tenets of the middle school concept as outlined by This We Believe: Successful Schools for Young Adolescents (National Middle School Association, 2003) in schools designated Kentucky Schools to Watch as compared to nondesignated schools. Additionally, the study reviewed the academic performance of Kentucky's middle schools on the Kentucky Core Content Test to determine whether the schools identified as Kentucky Schools to Watch experienced higher levels of student academic achievement. Results indicated a slightly higher perceived level of implementation of key tenets of the middle school concept in Kentucky's Schools to Watch and revealed overall higher levels of academic achievement as measured by the Kentucky Core Content Test.

WOOD TRADE OUTLOOK THE TOP 4 AREAS TO WATCH IN 2008 While 2007 was a challenging year for the wood Challenges Â­ Headwinds Against Imports and Wood Use From January to September 2007, the market saw roughly manufacturers, and other industries using wood and you can easily see that 2008 will be a trying year for lumber

The results from a five-year study of the information skills of journalism students provide insights into what students use and how that usage evolves, and have implications for information literacy instruction. Using a simple tool, the author watched learning happen in response to classes, work, and the changing information environment. (Contains…

Purpose: To evaluate the optical coherence tomography (OCT) findings in patients with solar retinopathy after watching a solar eclipse. Methods: Complete ocular examinations and OCT were done in 4 patients presenting with acute solar retinopathy soon after observation of an eclipse. All 4 patients repeated the examinations about 1 month and 1 year after the first visit. Results: The symptoms

Volunteers monitor watershed health in more than 700 programs in the US, involving over 400,000 local stakeholders. New Mexico Watershed Watch is a student-based watershed monitoring program sponsored by the state's Department of Game and Fish which provides high school teachers and students with instruction on methods for water quality…

BirdWatch--Supporting Citizen Scientists for Better Linked Data Quality for Biodiversity Management biodiversity. The education and skills of the citizens participating in the work varies a lot, and the process of the observational data in repos- itories, such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility GBIF Data Portal

Interdisciplinary teams with common planning time have been a hallmark of the middle school organizational structure since the 1960s, yet research on the effective use of common planning time is limited. This study explores how interdisciplinary teams at schools designated Kentucky Schools to Watch use common planning time, including the factors…

There is widespread belief that exposure to television has harmful effects on children's cognitive development. Most studies that point to a negative correlation between hours of television watching and cognitive outcomes, fail to establish causality. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) we study young children between 5 and 10…

Watching an Enzyme at Work: A Mass Spectrometry View of Allosteric Citrate Synthase Lynda J. Donald Citrate synthase is the enzyme at the entry point of the citric acid cycle. In Gram-negative bacteria of the wild-type enzyme from Escherichia coli shows three quasi- symmetrical dimers arranged around a 3-fold

Conrad Ball Middle School in Loveland, Colorado, earned a "School to Watch" Award in 2005 from the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform and was designated as high-performing by the state. However, in 2002, the school had its lowest test scores ever. Teachers at Conrad Ball received the news and determined they would turn things…

Exhaustion Heat Stroke Sweaty skinHeadacheDizziness Fast heart beat ConvulsionsHigh temperatureRed, hot, dryHealth effects of heat Watch out for early symptoms. You may need medical help. People react differently - you may have just a few of these symptoms, or most of them. Two types of heat illness: Heat

The Dalles Lock and Dam welcomes raptor (and human) visitors during Eagle Watch 2013 By Amber Tilton, The Dalles Lock and Dam park ranger Nestled between Oregon and Washington is the Columbia River District operates three dams on the Columbia River where visitors and employees alike often spot America

1 BusView and Transit Watch: an Update on Two Products from the Seattle SMART TREK Model Deployment Trek model deployment, two new applications where created to provide real-time transit information. The two venues where transit riders need information are (1) on the desktop and (2) at the transit center

Watch Global, Cache Local: YouTube Network Traffic at a Campus Network - Measurements of web services such as YouTube allowing the distribution of such user-produced media content in an easy in YouTube is realized and then conduct a measurement study of YouTube traffic in a large university

Recent years have seen an increase in the use of video for teacher education and professional development accompanied by widespread recognition that to be beneficial, video must be used in activities that induce particular modes of inquiry. However, little is known about how teachers typically watch video. The present study investigates the use of…

Operation Waste Watch is a series of seven sequential learning units which addresses the subject of litter control and solid waste management. Each unit may be used in a variety of ways, depending on the needs and schedules of individual schools, and may be incorporated into various social studies, science, language arts, health, mathematics, and…

The method and technology to analyze the train wheel behavior of a watch using a laser beam are described. Progress in automatic assembly of analog watch movement is considered. After assembling, however, the train wheel behavior is manually inspected, and automation is desired. A laser beam scanning method was developed to analyze wheel behavior. The system comprises a beam control unit in which an acoustic optical element is used, a signal processing unit, and a personal computer. In this system, the teeth of train wheels running at high speed and from the background of the teeth is continuously analyzed to permit time series understanding of the quantity and direction of wheel rotation. The dynamic train wheel behavior of the movement can be analyzed in detail. The configuration and measuring method are described in detail, and the result of the behavior analysis is touched upon.

This study examined trends in contaminants measured during three decades of "Mussel Watch" monitoring on the California coast. Chlorinated organic contaminants and butyltins declined the most rapidly, with tissue concentrations in 2010 that were up to 75% lower than during the 1980s. Silver and lead declined at about half of the stations statewide, but generally exhibited slower rates of decline relative to the organic compounds. In contrast, copper increased at many stations, and PAHs showed little evidence for declines. Mussels from San Francisco Bay and the Southern California Bight were historically the most contaminated and have had the steepest declines. Overall, these data show that the "Mussel Watch" approach to monitoring contaminants in California has provided some of the best evidence of the effectiveness of actions to improve water quality over the past 30 years. These datasets also highlight challenges that remain in managing PAHs and copper. PMID:23711838

The characteristics of construction and operation of electrostatic micromotors built by silicon surface micromachining are summarized. Two particular realizations, the comb and the wobble micromotors, are presented. Their torques are larger than those of other silicon micromotors. Their characteristics are compared with the one's of a watch motor (Lavet motor). The investigation shows that questions on their lifetime, on their mechanical outputs, and on their closures remain to be solved.

Whale-watching tourism, currently worth $1 billion p.a. worldwide, depends upon the continued presence of whale, dolphin and porpoise species (collectively called cetaceans) within a specific area. Current evidence suggests that the distribution and\\/or abundance of cetaceans is likely to alter in response to continued changes in sea surface temperature with global climate change (GCC). This paper reviews how such changes

The overall corn blight watch experiment data flow is described and the organization of the LARS/Purdue data center is discussed. Data analysis techniques are discussed in general and the use of statistical multispectral pattern recognition methods for automatic computer analysis of aircraft scanner data is described. Some of the results obtained are discussed and the implications of the experiment on future data communication requirements for earth resource survey systems is discussed.

The isotemporal substitution model (ISM) was previously developed as a methodology to study the time-substitution effects of 1 type of activity for another in a data setting with continuous outcomes. To demonstrate the application of ISM with a dichotomous outcome, we prospectively examined the associations of different activities with various activity displacements with depression risk among 32,900 US women from the Nurses' Health Study who were free from depressive symptoms at baseline (in 1996). During a 10-year follow-up, 5,730 incident depression cases were documented. Results from the ISMs indicated that for each physical activity, differences in magnitude of effects of each activity type were observed, dependent on the activity being displaced/substituted. Notably, an isotemporal substitution gradient was found for television watching, in which its association with depression risk varied by its substitution for slow-, average-, or brisk-paced walking in a gradient toward high depression risk when television watching replaced a faster walking pace (relative risk = 1.18, 95% confidence interval: 1.05, 1.31). Conversely, no association with depression was found for replacement of television watching with 60 minutes/day of slow walking, whereas a lower depression risk (relative risk = 0.85, 95% confidence interval: 0.76, 0.95) was found when 60 minutes/day of brisk walking replaced 60 minutes/day of television watching. Thus, the ISM could offer a more meaningful alternative to the standard nonsubstitution models to support public health recommendations. PMID:23785112

Tourism interests usually coexist in a delicate balance with other human interests (e.g. residential development and recreational interests) and activities (e.g. fishing, forestry and mining). Such interests and activities may be compatible or incompatible with tourism to varying degrees. Where incompatibility arises it must be carefully managed through compromise, spatial segregation or exclusivity. Conflicting interests between whale-watching and whaling is

PurposeWe examined the association of parental television (TV) rules and compliance with the American Academy of Pediatrics' (AAP) recommendations of ?2h of television per day in a primarily Hispanic sample of elementary school children (n=734) living on the U.S. side of the Texas–Mexico border. The potential modifying effects of children's home environment (parental TV watching, parent at home after school,

We propose a conservational opportunity for humans to ‘use’ the green turtle (Chelonia mydas) in a non-consumptive manner. Although the concept of a social safe-minimum standard analysis, as applied to the sustainability\\u000a of tourism-dependent turtle watching, has focused on beach-nesting habitats, other tourist activities like diving and snorkelling\\u000a also occur in shallow coastal habitats frequented by juvenile and adult turtles.

American oysters (Crassostrea virginica) obtained from the NOAA Mussel Watch program were screened for DNA methylation, a type of epigenetic response to stressors. Oysters were collected from sites in the Gulf of Mexico having high mercury...

Your Passport to the Universe The night sky is alive with many wonders--distant planets, vast star clusters, glowing nebulae, and expansive galaxies, all waiting to be explored. Let respected astronomy writer Philip Harrington introduce you to the universe in Star Watch, a complete beginner's guide to locating, observing, and understanding these celestial objects. You'll start by identifying the surface features of the Moon, the banded cloud tops of Jupiter, the stunning rings of Saturn, and other members of our solar system. Then you'll venture out beyond our solar system, where you'll learn tips and tricks for finding outstanding deep-sky objects from stars to galaxies, including the entire Messier catalog--a primary goal of every serious beginner. Star Watch features a detailed physical description of each target, including size, distance, and structure, as well as concise directions for locating the objects, handy finder charts, hints on the best times to view each object, and descriptions of what you'll really see through a small telescope or binoculars and with the naked eye. Star Watch will transport you to the farthest depths of space--and return you as a well-traveled, experienced stargazer.

The International Halley Watch (IHW) was organized for the purpose of gathering and archiving the most complete record of the apparition of a comet, Halley's Comet (1982i = 1986 III = 1P/Halley), ever compiled. The redirection of the International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 (ISEE-3) spacecraft, subsequently renamed the International Cometary Explorer (ICE), toward Comet Giacobini- Zinner (1984e = 1985 XIII = 21P/Giacobini-Zinner) prompted the initiation of a formal watch on that comet. All the data collected on P/Giacobini-Zinner and P/Halley have been published on CD-ROM in the Comet Halley Archive. This document contains a printed version of the archive data, collected by amateur astronomers, on these two comets. Volume 1 contains the Comet Giacobini-Zinner data archive and Volume 2 contains the Comet Halley archive. Both volumes include information on how to read the data in both archives, as well as a history of both comet watches (including the organizing of the network of astronomers and lessons learned from that experience).

Implantable glucose sensors can measure real time blood glucose as compared to conventional techniques involving drawing blood samples and in-vitro processing. An implantable sensor requires energy source for operation with wire inout provision for power and sending signals. Implants capable of generation-transmission of sensory signals, with minimal or no power requirement, can solve this problem. An implantable nanosensor design has been presented here, which can passively detect glucose concentration in blood stream and transmit data to a wearable receiver-recorder system or a watch. The glucose sensitive component is a redox pair of electrodes that generates voltage proportional to glucose concentration. The bio-electrode, made of carbon nanotubes-enzyme nanocluster, has been investigated because of the large surface area for taping electrical signals. This glucose sensor can charge a capacitor, which can be a part of a LCR resonance/inductive coupling based radio frequency (RF) sensor telemetry. Such a system can measure change in glucose concentration by the induced frequency shift in the LCR circuit. A simultaneous power transmission and signal transmission can be achieved by employing two separate LCR oscillating loops, one for each operation. The corresponding coupling LCR circuits can be housed in the wearable receiving watch unit. The data logged in this glucose monitoring watch can be instrumental in managing blood glucose as trigger for an insulin dispensing payload worn on person or implanted.

The objective of this study is to observe the visual fatigue caused by watching 3DTV using the method of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The data of fMRI during three kinds of visual stimulation tasks were obtained from twenty subjects. At first, blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal changes during stimuli of checkerboard task were compared before and after one-hour watching 3D/2DTV, and subjective evaluation was conducted based on the questionnaire simultaneously. Then 3D and 2D images were used to stimulate healthy individuals to measure brain activities that correlated with stereoscopic vision. Finally, the relationship between front or back depth of field images and visual fatigue was investigated. The results reveal that the 3D group shows more significant differences of brain activities in BA8, BA17, BA18 and BA19 than the 2D group during the checkerboard stimulation. BA5, BA6, BA7 and BA8 were testified to have close relationship with stereoscopic perception via the 2D/3D images stimulation. Furthermore, the front depth of field image was proven to impose a more serious impact on visual fatigue than the back one. These conclusions are useful for healthy and reasonable 3DTV watching as well as properly designing of 3D scenes. PMID:25603496

Diabetes is a world-wide epidemic associated with multiple environmental factors. Prolonged television viewing (TV) time has been related to increased risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes in several studies. TV viewing has been positively associated with cardiovascular disease risk factors, lower energy expenditure, over-eating high-calorie and high-fat foods. The objective of this study was to assess the associations of hours of TV viewing with dietary quality, obesity and physical activity for three ethnic minorities with and without type 2 diabetes. Diet quality and physical activity were inversely related to prolonged TV viewing. African Americans and participants with type 2 diabetes were more likely to watch more than 4 hours of TV per day as compared to their counterparts. Diet quality was inversely associated with physical activity level. Future studies are needed to establish the risk factors of prolonged TV watching in adult populations for the development of diabetes or diabetes-related complications. Although strategies to reduce TV watching have been proven effective among children, few trials have been conducted in adults. Intervention trials aimed at reducing TV viewing targeting people with type 2 diabetes may be beneficial to improve dietary quality and physical activity, which may reduce diabetes complications. PMID:22851980

Digitally capturing and displaying real-time images of people in public places raises concerns for individual privacy. Applying the principles of Value Sensitive Design, we conducted two studies of people's social judgments about this topic. In Study I, 750 people were surveyed as they walked through a public plaza that was being captured by a HDTV camera and displayed in real-time in the office of a building overlooking the plaza. In Study II, 120 individuals were interviewed about the same topic. Moreover, Study II controlled for whether the participant was a direct stakeholder of the technology (inside the office watching people on the HDTV large-plasma display window) or an indirect stakeholder (being watched in the public venue). Taking both studies together, results (showed the following): (a) the majority of participants upheld some modicum of privacy in public; (b) people's privacy judgments were not a one-dimensional construct, but often involved considerations based on physical harm, psychological well-being, and informed consent; and (c) more women than men expressed concerns about the installation, and, unlike the men, equally brought forward their concerns, whether they were The Watcher or The Watched.

well at the U of L by bird-watching. Bird-watching is the act of searching for species of birds while a bird watching course and going out and observing birds. She used the chickadee, a very small and agile bird to help train her eyes; ever since she has been bird-watching all over the world. She reported

At this website, visitors can monitor geomagnetic activity and find out when the aurora borealis may be visible from the UK. Lancaster University offers background information on the characteristics and causes of an aurora, plots of both same day and previous day activities, and magnetometer data. Students and educators can learn how to make their own pop-bottle and compass aurora detectors. Individuals can sign up to receive alerts of opportunities to see the aurora. Everyone can treasure the truly amazing collection of northern lights images.

During the past 20 years, dozens—if not hundreds—of monoclonal antibodies have been developed and characterized for their capacity to mediate antineoplastic effects, either as they activate/enhance tumor-specific immune responses, either as they interrupt cancer cell-intrinsic signal transduction cascades, either as they specifically delivery toxins to malignant cells or as they block the tumor-stroma interaction. Such an intense research effort has lead to the approval by FDA of no less than 14 distinct molecules for use in humans affected by hematological or solid malignancies. In the inaugural issue of OncoImmunology, we briefly described the scientific rationale behind the use of monoclonal antibodies in cancer therapy and discussed recent, ongoing clinical studies investigating the safety and efficacy of this approach in patients. Here, we summarize the latest developments in this exciting area of clinical research, focusing on high impact studies that have been published during the last 15 months and clinical trials launched in the same period to investigate the therapeutic profile of promising, yet hitherto investigational, monoclonal antibodies. PMID:23482847

For the school chief information officer (CIO), safeguarding students and facilities is as much a part of the job description as keeping the data networks running and the servers protected from hackers. This article describes how two districts, Miami-Dade County Public Schools and Taos Municipal Schools, secured their surveillance systems. The…

Lenalidomide is a synthetic derivative of thalidomide currently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for use in patients affected by multiple myeloma (in combination with dexamethasone) and low or intermediate-1 risk myelodysplastic syndromes that harbor 5q cytogenetic abnormalities. For illustrative purposes, the mechanism of action of lenalidomide can be subdivided into a cancer cell-intrinsic, a stromal, and an immunological component. Indeed, lenalidomide not only exerts direct cell cycle-arresting and pro-apoptotic effects on malignant cells, but also interferes with their physical and functional interaction with the tumor microenvironment and mediates a robust, pleiotropic immunostimulatory activity. In particular, lenalidomide has been shown to stimulate the cytotoxic functions of T lymphocytes and natural killer cells, to limit the immunosuppressive impact of regulatory T cells, and to modulate the secretion of a wide range of cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor ?, interferon ? as well as interleukin (IL)-6, IL-10, and IL-12. Throughout the last decade, the antineoplastic and immunostimulatory potential of lenalidomide has been investigated in patients affected by a wide variety of hematological and solid malignancies. Here, we discuss the results of these studies and review the status of clinical trials currently assessing the safety and efficacy of this potent immunomodulatory drug in oncological indications. PMID:24482747

In many hospitals, the postanesthesia care unit (PACU) functions 24 hours per day. Nurses "on-call" often cover nights, weekends, and holidays. It has been a struggle for some facilities to meet the American Society of PeriAnesthesia Nurses (ASPAN) standard of care that recommends 2 nurses be present whenever an anesthetized patient recovers in Phase I PACU. Recent practice issues of "holding" patients for inpatient beds, not transferring ICU patients, and admission of patients from the ER to the PACU has complicated staff coverage for the overnight hours in PACU. ASPAN has crafted position statements in response to these issues to guide nurses. This author chronicles one hospital's use of a night nurse to provide staffing stability and care for PACU patients after hours. PMID:16387271

During the past two decades, the notion that cancer would merely constitute a cell-intrinsic disease has gradually been complemented by a model postulating that the immune system plays a relevant role during all stages of oncogenesis and tumor progression. Along with this conceptual shift, several strategies have been devised to stimulate tumor-specific immune responses, including relatively unselective approaches such as the systemic administration of adjuvants or immunomodulatory cytokines. One year ago, in the July issue of OncoImmunology, we described the main biological features of this large group of proteins and discussed the progress of ongoing clinical studies evaluating their safety and therapeutic potential in cancer patients. Here, we summarize the latest developments in this area of clinical research, focusing on high impact studies that have been published during the last 13 mo and clinical trials launched in the same period to investigate which cytokines can be employed as safe and efficient immunostimulatory interventions against cancer. PMID:24073369

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) have long been known for their ability to initiate innate immune responses upon exposure to conserved microbial components such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and double-stranded RNA. More recently, this family of pattern recognition receptors has been attributed a critical role in the elicitation of anticancer immune responses, raising interest in the development of immunochemotherapeutic regimens based on natural or synthetic TLR agonists. In spite of such an intense wave of preclinical and clinical investigation, only three TLR agonists are currently licensed by FDA for use in cancer patients: bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG), an attenuated strain of Mycobacterium bovis that operates as a mixed TLR2/TLR4 agonist; monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL), a derivative of Salmonella minnesota that functions as a potent agonist of TLR4; and imiquimod, a synthetic imidazoquinoline that activates TLR7. One year ago, in the August and September issues of OncoImmunology, we described the main biological features of TLRs and discussed the progress of clinical studies evaluating the safety and therapeutic potential of TLR agonists in cancer patients. Here, we summarize the latest developments in this exciting area of research, focusing on preclinical studies that have been published during the last 13 mo and clinical trials launched in the same period to investigate the antineoplastic activity of TLR agonists. PMID:24083080

Classroom study ideas, questions, and multimedia dealing with Monarch butterflies as classroom study organisms. Information about conservation, migration and tagging, biology, and live butterflies for sale is presented.

Suggests a number of ways in which Federal Aviation Agency weather report printouts can be used in teaching the weather section of meteorology. These weather sequence reports can be obtained free of charge at most major airports. (JR)

It is now clear that the immune system plays a critical role not only during oncogenesis and tumor progression, but also as established neoplastic lesions respond to therapy. Selected cytotoxic chemicals can indeed elicit immunogenic cell death, a functionally peculiar type of apoptosis that stimulates tumor-specific cognate immune responses. Such immunogenic chemotherapeutics include cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin and oxaliplatin (which are approved by FDA for the treatment of various hematological and solid malignancies), mitoxantrone (which is currently employed both as an anticancer agent and against multiple sclerosis) and patupilone (a microtubular poison in clinical development). One year ago, in the second issue of OncoImmunology, we discussed the scientific rationale behind immunogenic chemotherapy and reviewed the status of recent clinical trials investigating the off-label use of cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, oxaliplatin and mitoxantrone in cancer patients. Here, we summarize the latest developments in this area of clinical research, covering both high-impact studies that have been published during the last 13 months and clinical trials that have been initiated in the same period to assess the antineoplastic profile of immunogenic chemotherapeutics. PMID:23687621

Throughout the past 3 decades, along with the recognition that the immune system not only influences oncogenesis and tumor progression, but also determines how established neoplastic lesions respond therapy, renovated enthusiasm has gathered around the possibility of using vaccines as anticancer agents. Such an enthusiasm quickly tempered when it became clear that anticancer vaccines would have to be devised as therapeutic, rather than prophylactic, measures, and that malignant cells often fail to elicit (or actively suppress) innate and adaptive immune responses. Nonetheless, accumulating evidence indicates that a variety of anticancer vaccines, including cell-based, DNA-based, and purified component-based preparations, are capable of circumventing the poorly immunogenic and highly immunosuppressive nature of most tumors and elicit (at least under some circumstances) therapeutically relevant immune responses. Great efforts are currently being devoted to the identification of strategies that may provide anticancer vaccines with the capacity of breaking immunological tolerance and eliciting tumor-associated antigen-specific immunity in a majority of patients. In this sense, promising results have been obtained by combining anticancer vaccines with a relatively varied panels of adjuvants, including multiple immunostimulatory cytokines, Toll-like receptor agonists as well as inhibitors of immune checkpoints. One year ago, in the December issue of OncoImmunology, we discussed the biological mechanisms that underlie the antineoplastic effects of peptide-based vaccines and presented an abundant literature demonstrating the prominent clinical potential of such an approach. Here, we review the latest developments in this exciting area of research, focusing on high-profile studies that have been published during the last 13 mo and clinical trials launched in the same period to evaluate purified peptides or full-length proteins as therapeutic anticancer agents. PMID:24498550

Children are naturally curious about the world in which they live. To focus this sense of wonder, have your students investigate their local habitat as it changes over the year. This multiseason study will build connections and add relevance to the habitats that children learn about. This series of activities for grades 4-6 explores the changing…

Radiotherapy has extensively been employed as a curative or palliative intervention against cancer throughout the last century, with a varying degree of success. For a long time, the antineoplastic activity of X- and ?-rays was entirely ascribed to their capacity of damaging macromolecules, in particular DNA, and hence triggering the (apoptotic) demise of malignant cells. However, accumulating evidence indicates that (at least part of) the clinical potential of radiotherapy stems from cancer cell-extrinsic mechanisms, including the normalization of tumor vasculature as well as short- and long-range bystander effects. Local bystander effects involve either the direct transmission of lethal signals between cells connected by gap junctions or the production of diffusible cytotoxic mediators, including reactive oxygen species, nitric oxide and cytokines. Conversely, long-range bystander effects, also known as out-of-field or abscopal effects, presumably reflect the elicitation of tumor-specific adaptive immune responses. Ionizing rays have indeed been shown to promote the immunogenic demise of malignant cells, a process that relies on the spatiotemporally defined emanation of specific damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs). Thus, irradiation reportedly improves the clinical efficacy of other treatment modalities such as surgery (both in neo-adjuvant and adjuvant settings) or chemotherapy. Moreover, at least under some circumstances, radiotherapy may potentiate anticancer immune responses as elicited by various immunotherapeutic agents, including (but presumably not limited to) immunomodulatory monoclonal antibodies, cancer-specific vaccines, dendritic cell-based interventions and Toll-like receptor agonists. Here, we review the rationale of using radiotherapy, alone or combined with immunomodulatory agents, as a means to elicit or boost anticancer immune responses, and present recent clinical trials investigating the therapeutic potential of this approach in cancer patients. PMID:24319634

This column highlights recently published articles that are of interest to the readership of this publication. We encourage ABRF members to forward information on articles they feel are important and useful to Clive Slaughter, Hartwell Center, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 332 North Lauderdale St., Memphis TN 38105-2794. Tel: (901) 495-4844; Fax: (901) 495-2945; email: Clive.Slaughter@stjude.org or to any member of the editorial board. Article summaries reflect the reviewer’s opinions and not necessarily those of the Association.

Tumor-targeting immune responses provide a significant contribution to (when they do not entirely account for) the clinical activity of diverse antineoplastic regimens, encompassing not only a large panel of immunotherapeutic strategies but also conventional cytotoxic molecules, targeted anticancer agents and irradiation. In line with this notion, several approaches have been devised to elicit novel or boost existing anticancer immune responses, including the administration of immunomodulatory cytokines. Such a relatively unspecific intervention suffices to mediate clinical effects in (at least a subset of) patients bearing particularly immunogenic tumors, like melanoma and renal cell carcinoma. More often, however, immunostimulatory cytokines are administered to boost the immunogenic potential of other agents, including (but not limited to) immune checkpoint-blocking antibodies, anticancer vaccines, oncolytic viruses and immunogenic chemotherapeutics. Here, we summarize the latest advances in the clinical development of recombinant cytokines as an immunomodulatory intervention for cancer therapy. PMID:25083328

Oncolytic viruses are natural or genetically modified viral species that selectively infect and kill neoplastic cells. Such an innate or exogenously conferred specificity has generated considerable interest around the possibility to employ oncolytic viruses as highly targeted agents that would mediate cancer cell-autonomous anticancer effects. Accumulating evidence, however, suggests that the therapeutic potential of oncolytic virotherapy is not a simple consequence of the cytopathic effect, but strongly relies on the induction of an endogenous immune response against transformed cells. In line with this notion, superior anticancer effects are being observed when oncolytic viruses are engineered to express (or co-administered with) immunostimulatory molecules. Although multiple studies have shown that oncolytic viruses are well tolerated by cancer patients, the full-blown therapeutic potential of oncolytic virotherapy, especially when implemented in the absence of immunostimulatory interventions, remains unclear. Here, we cover the latest advances in this active area of translational investigation, summarizing high-impact studies that have been published during the last 12 months and discussing clinical trials that have been initiated in the same period to assess the therapeutic potential of oncolytic virotherapy in oncological indications. PMID:25097804

This study has been prompted by the relatively small body of knowledge on the media use of the elderly. The aim of this study was to show how people 50 years and older use the medium television in Germany. Therefore, the 1996 television usership data collected in a representative 'peoplemeter' panel of about 4,800 German television households have been surveyed, processed and analyzed using standard audience research software. In 1996, Germans 50 years and above watched on average 233 min television per day. The older a person, the longer he or she watches television. Individuals 65 years and older watch television for 253 min per day. This subgroup appears to comprise the most intensive users of the medium. Men 65 years and above may be depicted as the heaviest weekend TV watchers, older women as the medium's closest followers from Monday to Friday. Television program broadcast late in the afternoon and early in the evening have by far the best chances to be chosen by seniors. The affinity of the elderly for the medium can be explained by its potential for offering entertainment, information, and companionship, being a substitute for primary interpersonal communication, a tool for structuring time patterns and keeping up the rhythms of long-established everyday rituals. On the one hand, television can be a 'lifeline' and a 'window to the outside world' for people with little opportunity for direct, unmediated social contact, thus possibly raising their satisfaction of life. On the other hand, prolonged TV use may be seen as an indicator for the degree of loneliness and neglect of the elderly. PMID:9592692

There are few opportunities to go out for field study, and the difficulty of letting a child and student get an understanding accompanied with realization, in Primary and Junior high schools of Japan (e.g. JST, 2010; 2011). Performing field study using nature near around school is a good opportunity to force the essence of everything. Moreover, it is very important also on the concept formation of the natural science over the things phenomenon of a child and student. In this presentation, I clarify the appearance of the child who wants to educate from a viewpoint of field study, and observe three viewpoints of "Catch", "Touch", and "Watch" which heightens the education effect in the field (nature). In the presentation of this meeting last year (Yoshida and Matsumoto, 2011), I outlined that three viewpoint of "Catch", "Touch", and "Watch" is important. In response to it, I carried out More-Options arrangement about the "natural science literacy" to the child of each viewpoint this time. For that purpose, teacher effective support is required to educate to a child. That is, the focusing to the details in the inside of a large nature, prepare of teaching materials and teaching tools, and a teacher's own independence study are important.

The paradigm of "watch and wait" for low-tumor-burden follicular lymphoma (LTB-FL) was established in an era when the treatment options were more limited. With the introduction of rituximab, it appears that the natural history of this incurable disease has changed. However, most of the contemporary treatment data have been generated in patients with high tumor burden, and it is unclear whether the improvements in outcome also apply to the LTB population. There are no published trials evaluating rituximab-chemotherapy combinations and just a few studies evaluating single-agent rituximab in this population. As a result, there are many unknowns in the management of LTB-FL. Would the application of rituximab-chemotherapy combination cure a fraction of patients? Would the application of rituximab-chemotherapy combination improve the overall survival of the population? Would treatment with single-agent rituximab improve the psychologic quality of life by avoiding a watch and wait interval or by delaying the time to first chemotherapy? This review, a mixture of data and opinion, will discuss goals of therapy for an LTB-FL patient, summarize existing data, and propose a management algorithm. PMID:23233615

The Congressional and Army sponsored WaterWATCH TM Program has developed and demonstrated a fully integrated shallow water port and facility monitoring system. It provides fully automated monitoring of domains above and below the surface of the water using primarily off-the-shelf sensors and software. The system is modular, open architecture and IP based, and elements can be mixed and matched to adapt to specific applications. The sensors integrated into the WaterWATCH TM system include cameras, radar, passive and active sonar, and various motion detectors. The sensors were chosen based on extensive requirements analyses and tradeoffs. Descriptions of the system and individual sensors are provided, along with data from modular and system level testing. Camera test results address capabilities and limitations associated with using "smart" image analysis software with stressing environmental issues such as bugs, darkness, rain and snow. Radar issues addressed include achieving range and resolution requirements. The passive sonar capability to provide near 100% true positives with zero false positives is demonstrated. Testing results are also presented to show that inexpensive active sonar can be effective against divers with or without SCUBA gear and that false alarms due to fish can be minimized. A simple operator interface has also been demonstrated.

There is great concern about the effects of playing violent video games on aggressive behavior. The present experimental study was aimed at investigating the differential effects of actively playing vs. passively watching the same violent video game on subsequent aggressive behavior. Fifty-seven children aged 10-13 either played a violent video game (active violent condition), watched the same violent video game (passive violent condition), or played a non-violent video game (active non-violent condition). Aggression was measured through peer nominations of real-life aggressive incidents during a free play session at school. After the active participation of actually playing the violent video game, boys behaved more aggressively than did the boys in the passive game condition. For girls, game condition was not related to aggression. These findings indicate that, specifically for boys, playing a violent video game should lead to more aggression than watching television violence. PMID:18161877

In order to evaluate the contamination levels in the Western Mediterranean basin, the active mussel watch methodology has been applied. This methodology consists of mussel transplantation (Mytilus galloprovincialis) from non impacted areas to selected coastal areas, characterised by potential impact from the continent due to contaminating sources. The areas of interest were selected along the entire coastal development of the Western Mediterranean sea, 122 sites in total. The time of mussel caging exposure was 12 weeks. The project was co-financed in the frame of the Interreg IIIB Meddoc Programme, aimed at determining the overall chemical quality of the Mediterranean sea, consistent with the Water Framework Directive 2000/60. Several partners representative of the coastal Mediterranean Countries were involved in the Project, with the purpose of building up a common surveillance network, adopting shared methodologies. In this paper we present the results of three yearly monitoring campaigns (2004, 2005, 2006) carried out along the coasts of Italy, France, Spain, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, including the coastal environment of Baleares, Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica. The contamination levels of Pesticides (DDT and its metabolites, Hexachlorocyclohexane isomers alpha and gamma) and Polychlorinated biphenyls, are reported and discussed. Statistical elaborations performed on the original data set were mainly aimed at validating the raw sample distributions, by means of the Johnson method. Both DD and PCB species frequency distributions have been approximated to appropriate theoretical distributions, belonging to the Log-normal and Bounded families. By integrating the related Probability Density Functions (p.d.f.), different accumulation values for DDT, DDD and DDE and PCB species have been estimated, corresponding to fixed percentage points of the area under the respective curves. By choosing appropriate probability level boundaries (33rd and 66th percentile), different regional zones have been ranked in terms of low, medium and high accumulation for Pesticides and PCBs. PMID:20383374

Amid the thousands of spectators watching the launch of STS-95 are Insurance Commissioner Bill Nelson (second from left, pointing) and Heavyweight Boxing Champion Evander Holyfield (next to him). A former U.S. representative, Nelson flew as a crew member on STS 61-C in January 1986. The STS-95 mission, which lifted off at 2:19:34 p.m. EST on Oct. 29, includes research payloads such as the Spartan solar-observing deployable spacecraft, the Hubble Space Telescope Orbital Systems Test Platform, the International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker, as well as a SPACEHAB single module with experiments on space flight and the aging process. Extra attention has been drawn to the mission due to the addition to the crew of John H. Glenn Jr., a senator from Ohio. STS-95 is Glenn's second flight into space after 36 years; he was one of the original Project Mercury astronauts and flew his first mission in February 1962.

Interdisciplinary teams with common planning time have been a hallmark of the middle school organizational structure since the 1960s, yet research on the effective use of common planning time is limited. This study explores how interdisciplinary teams at schools designated Kentucky Schools to Watch use common planning time, including the factors that enhance common planning time effectiveness, the beliefs and perceptions of the teachers concerning the use of common planning time, and the topics and activities discussed during common planning time sessions. Results indicate a common vision and mission, clearly defined goals for all types of planning (interdisciplinary team planning, grade level planning, and professional learning communities), and effective building leadership are factors for enhancing the effectiveness of common planning time.

Forest Watch is a student-scientist partnership and education outreach program to study white pine health in New England. Primary and secondary students collect and process data on air pollution damage to forests near their schools, which is used by University of New Hampshire researchers, and compared with spectral data. These are then compared to tropospheric ozone data, beginning from 1991. Data spreadsheets for the student to enter forest biometric data and spectral curves are provided, as well as EOS-Webster satellite imagery, and GPS, ALTA, and Topo-Map activities forms. The student activities include forest stand assessment, laboratory assessment of damage symptoms, and image processing and data analysis of Thematic Mapper data around their school. There is information on teacher workshops and a message board.

This report provides the data from the retained gas sampler, void fraction instrument, ball rheometer, standard hydrogen monitoring system, and other tank data pertinent to gas retention and release behavior in the waste stored in double-shelled Flammable Gas Watch List tanks at Hanford. These include tanks 241-AN-103,241-AN-104, 241-AN-105, 241-AW-101, 241-SY-101, and 241-SY-103. The tanks and the waste they contain are described in terms of fill history and chemistry. The results of mixer pump operation and recent waste transfers and back-dilution in SY-101 are also described. In-situ measurement and monitoring systems are described and the data are summarized under the categories of thermal behavior, waste configuration and properties, gas generation and composition, gas retention and historical gas release behavior.

The relation between viewing television coverage of a mass disaster and the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is poorly understood. A cohort of New Yorkers without baseline probable PTSD (N=1787) was assessed 1 year following the September 11, 2001, attacks. The primary outcome was new-onset probable PTSD assessed through a validated scale, and the primary exposure was number of hours of September 11 anniversary news coverage viewed. A total of 99 (5.6%) of participants had developed probable PTSD at the 1-year follow-up. Watching 12 or more hours of September 11 attack anniversary news coverage was associated with a 3.4-fold increased risk of new-onset probable PTSD (p=0.004). Exposure to television coverage of the September 11 anniversary was associated with new-onset probable PTSD among a cohort of New Yorkers with no probable PTSD at baseline. PMID:17220738

The WomenWatch website is dedicated to providing "information and resources on gender equality and empowerment of women." It is an initiative of the United Nations Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality (IANWGE) and the site is a veritable cornucopia of information on this vast and timely subject. In the Quick Links and Features, visitors can view the UN Gender Equality News Feed, which is a great way to get a sense of the main issues affecting women around the world. Moving on, the Documents and Publications area contains seminal reports such as "Seeing Beyond the State: Grassroots Women's Perspectives on Corruption and Anti-Corruption." Also, the News and Highlights area contains links to partner organizations, such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. These links include radio clips, news releases, and other key pieces of information.

Aortic stenosis (AS) is the most common valvular heart disorder in older adults. Patients with severe AS are generally treated nonsurgically if asymptomatic and referred to aortic valve replacement when symptoms develop. However, patients with severe asymptomatic AS with left ventricular dysfunction may benefit from early aortic valve replacement. Although operative mortality in patients with severe AS and left ventricular dysfunction is greater than in patients with preserved left ventricular function, the overall mortality risk is substantially lower than that of watchful waiting. Operative risk in patients with severe AS and left ventricular dysfunction is often overestimated and, consequently, most are not referred to surgery despite clinical data in support of early aortic valve replacement. Asymptomatic patients with echocardiographic confirmation of severe AS and left ventricular dysfunction should be referred for aortic valve replacement. PMID:23580789

These stands are filled with spectators watching and photographing the launch of STS-95. The viewing sites and roadways at Kennedy Space Center bulge with people and vehicles wanting to see Space Shuttle Discovery lift off. Extra attention has been drawn to the mission due to the addition to the crew of John H. Glenn Jr., a senator from Ohio. STS-95 is Glenn's second flight into space after 36 years; he was one of the original Project Mercury astronauts and flew his first mission in February 1962. The STS-95 mission includes research payloads such as the Spartan solar-observing deployable spacecraft, the Hubble Space Telescope Orbital Systems Test Platform, the International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker, as well as a SPACEHAB single module with experiments on space flight and the aging process.

In science, the use of digital video to document phenomena, experiments and demonstrations has rapidly increased during the last decade. The use of digital video for science education also has become common with the wide availability of video over the internet. However, as with using any technology as a teaching tool, some questions should be asked: What science is being learned from watching a YouTube clip of a volcanic eruption or an informational video on hydroelectric power generation? What are student preferences (e.g. multimedia versus traditional mode of delivery) with regard to their learning? This study describes 1) the efficacy of watching digital video in the science classroom to enhance student learning, 2) student preferences of instruction with regard to multimedia versus traditional delivery modes, and 3) the use of creating digital video as a project-based educational strategy to enhance learning. Undergraduate non-science majors were the primary focus group in this study. Students were asked to view video segments and respond to a survey focused on what they learned from the segments. Additionally, they were asked about their preference for instruction (e.g. text only, lecture-PowerPoint style delivery, or multimedia-video). A majority of students indicated that well-made video, accompanied with scientific explanations or demonstration of the phenomena was most useful and preferred over text-only or lecture instruction for learning scientific information while video-only delivery with little or no explanation was deemed not very useful in learning science concepts. The use of student generated video projects as learning vehicles for the creators and other class members as viewers also will be discussed.

In this study, I investigated how proficiently seventh-grade students enrolled in two Southwestern schools solve algebra word problems. I analyzed various factors that could affect this proficiency and explored the differences between English Learners (ELs) and native English Primary students (EPs). I collected the data as part of the Animal Watch…

The Education Watch initiative is being implemented in the Solomon Islands by the Coalition on Education Solomon Islands (COESI) in partnership with Asian South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education (ASPBAE). COESI aims to generate a reliable body of information that will: (1) Accurately explain how much the national government has done and can do to…

for very sensitive computations. In an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud, such an attack could8 StopWatch: A Cloud Architecture for Timing Channel Mitigation PENG LI, University of North-channel attacks that arise from coresidency of victims and attackers in infrastructure-as-a-service clouds. Stop

An experimental project--Watch A Book--is being conducted to determine if public television (PTV) programs can be used in a video cassette format by individual viewers in a public library setting. The Public Television Library (PTL), the national center for the exchange of public television programs between PTV stations, has provided libraries in…

Photo Gallery Photo 1. Adult female watching her nest cavity as we checked its contents DESERT All photographs by Aaron D. Flesch 446 Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America #12;Photo Gallery Photo 2. Nest site located in a giant saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) near the western edge

This study explored the relationship between handedness and interest in night-sky watching. University students (N= 128) completed the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (Oldfield, 1971) and the Noctcaelador Inventory (Kelly, 2004). The findings indicated that mixed-handed participants scored highest on noctcaelador relative to those classified as…

This study explored the relationship between positive attitudes and behaviors concerning night-sky watching (noctcaelador) and aesthetic sensitivity. College students (N = 106) completed the Noctcaelador Inventory (Kelly, 2004a) and a shortened version of the Sensitivity Questionnaire (Child, 1965). Noctcaelador was significantly, positively…

Nuclear Energy. It is not a solution, it is a problem #12;The Mediterranean Antinuclear Watch (MANW - called "peaceful use" of nuclear energy as well as the production and proliferation of nuclear weapons pose. #12;Nuclear energy renaissance Twenty two years after the accident in Chernobyl NPP. Energy

Argues that Harlem Renaissance literary figure, Zora Neale Hurston, may have written her novel of a three-times married woman, "Their Eyes Were Watching God," under the influence of and in response to "Marie Grubbe," a novel by a nineteenth-century Danish man. (JB)

Â­ about the characteristics of traumatic memories, post-traumatic stress disorder syndrome (PTSD to a traumatic past event. The sounds described are the sounds of the assemblage and the disassembly of watches tied to his traumatic past. The double passage between present/external world to past/internal mind

Watershed Watch (NSF 0525433) is designed to engage early undergraduate students from two-year and four-year colleges in student-driven full inquiry-based instruction in the biogeosciences. Program goals for Watershed Watch are to test if inquiry-rich student-driven projects sufficiently engage undeclared students (or noncommittal STEM majors) to declare a STEM major (or remain with their STEM major). The program is a partnership between two four-year campuses - the University of New Hampshire (UNH), and Elizabeth City State University (ECSU, in North Carolina); and two two-year campuses - Great Bay Community College (GBCC, in New Hampshire) and the College of the Albemarle (COA, in North Carolina). Two Watershed Watch students from the 2009 Summer Research Institute (SRI), held on the ECSU campus, August 3-14, 2009 investigated the use of wood cores collected from loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) and bald cypress (Taxodium distichum). One student team studied the possible impacts of urban development on tree growth, focusing on the use of dendrochronology to assess the effect of environmental factors on the trees. Tree cores and foliar samples were collected at the ECSU Outdoor Classroom and compared with the same species from the Great Dismal Swamp (GDS) in Virginia. The main targets of this experiment were one aquatic tree, the bald cypress, and a land based tree, the loblolly pine. This allowed us to compare an urbanized area (ECSU) with a more natural setting (GDS) to evaluate factors impacting tree growth. This experiment suggests that there may be potentially harmful impacts of an urban environment with the data that at ECSU. The growth rings of the ECSU campus tree cores are noticeably narrow, especially in the loblolly pine from the ECSU outdoor classroom, and multiple fluctuations in more recent tree rings of the bald cypress in the ECSU campus. Growth ring compression, beginning approximately in 1956 in 100-year old loblolly pines, corresponds in timing with the nearby construction of two student dormitories within 100 feet of the trees. The other student team studied cores for evidence of possible impacts from four recent hurricanes (Isabel, category 5, 2003; Floyd, category 4, 1999; Bonnie, category 3, 1998; and Fran, Category 3, 1996) on trees from the Alligator River (near Cape Hatteras, NC) and from the ECSU campus (well inland). Cores were evaluated for the presence or absence of false growth rings that could be the result of saltwater impoundment associated with storm surges. False growth rings were seen in the cores of loblolly pine from the Alligator River site, but only for the years 2003 and 1999. No false growth rings were seen in the cores of loblolly pine from the ECSU campus. Both hurricanes Isabel and Floyd were stronger storms and had higher storm surges (8-10 ft) than either Bonnie or Fran (storm surges of 3-5 feet). The team hypothesized that the false growth rings were related to the impacts of the two stronger storms.

The last few years have seen a number of studies linking a sedentary lifestyle to obesity and an increased incidence of type 2 diabetes. This problem has been rather pronounced in the United States, as more Americans tend towards watching or being "passive" participants in activities. In a study released in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Professor Frank B. Hu and his colleagues at Harvard examined the relationship between various sedentary behaviors (particularly prolonged television watching) and the risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes in women. Looking at approximately 50,000 women from 11 states, Dr. Hu and his colleagues determined that sedentary behaviors were associated with a significantly elevated risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes. For persons interested in public health and women's health in particular, this report will be of great importance.

Between the launch of the Ulysses spacecraft in 1990 October and the entry of Pioneer Venus Orbiter (PVO) into the atmosphere of Venus in 1992 October, concurrent coverage by Ulysses, PVO, the WATCH experiments aboard the Granat and EURECA spacecraft, and the SIGMA and PHEBUS experiments aboard the Granat spacecraft was obtained for numerous gamma-ray bursts. 15 of them were detected by 3 or more instruments on spacecraft separated by distances of several AU, and could therefore be accurately localized by triangulation. In some cases independent, accurate locations were obtained by SIGMA and/or WATCH. We present these localizations, which range in area from 0.9 to 530 arcminutes$^2$.

The fact that different families, genera, and even species of echolocating bats broadcast characteristic sonar signals has motivated numerous efforts to classify bats according to signal design, which has received support from correlations with both peripheral and central auditory physiology. Signal types vary according to the situations in which bats have been observed hunting for food, so this classification has been extended to the hunting strategies they use. The availability of new technical means for watching and documenting the behavior of echolocating bats in real time (thermal infrared video cameras, night-vision video with infrared illumination, video recorders with ultrasonic audio channels) makes it possible to follow individual bats long enough to observe variations in their behavior over periods of seconds to minutes. These observations reveal that at least some species nominally classified as using just one hunting strategy in fact use several strategies according to prevailing conditions, sometimes using different strategies in the course of only a few minutes. The historic inaccessibility of bats to real-time observation in the dark may have lead to exaggerated stereotyping of their behavior. [Work supported by ONR, NSF.

Digital Earth Watch (DEW) involves individuals, schools, organizations and communities in a systematic monitoring project of their local environment, especially vegetation health. The program offers people the means to join the Picture Post network and to study and analyze their own findings using DEW software. A Picture Post is an easy-to-use and inexpensive platform for repeatedly taking digital photographs as a standardized set of images of the entire 360° landscape, which then can be shared over the Internet on the Picture Post website. This simple concept has the potential to create a wealth of information and data on changing environmental conditions, which is important for a society grappling with the effects of environmental change. Picture Posts may be added by anyone interested in monitoring a particular location. The value of a Picture Post is in the commitment of participants to take repeated photographs - monthly, weekly, or even daily - to build up a long-term record over many years. This poster will show examples of Picture Post pictures being used for monitoring and research applications, and a DEW mobile app for capturing repeat digital photographs at a virtual post. We invite individuals, schools, informal education centers, groups and communities to join.; A new post and its website. ; Creating a virtual post using the mobile app.

The research described in this paper shows how to extract from the glow curves of watch glasses exposed to LINAC photons and sunlight a contribution sensitive to LINAC photons dose. As first step, the dependence of the TL signal due to sunlight on the exposure duration was studied and a signal saturation was observed after about 20 weeks. The comparison of TL signals due to solar light and to LINAC photons highlights a partial overlap of the two signals. Here, two different analysis procedures of glow curves (general order kinetics deconvolution and principal components analysis) are reported to point out components which depend differently on LINAC photon radiation dose. For both analyses two components were used and the dependence on dose was investigated. In order to evaluate the ability of both techniques to reconstruct absorbed doses a blind test was performed. The reconstructed dose with both techniques is significantly consistent with the initial dose value. The procedures here described are valuable because they could be used to discriminate any background signal from that due to ionizing radiation irradiation and could be used as useful tools for dose reconstruction in retrospective dosimetry.

Digital Earth Watch (DEW) involves individuals, schools, organizations and communities in a systematic monitoring project of their local environment, especially vegetation health. The program offers people the means to join the Picture Post network and to study and analyze their own findings using DEW software. A Picture Post is an easy-to-use and inexpensive platform for repeatedly taking digital photographs as a standardized set of images of the entire 360° landscape, which then can be shared over the Internet on the Picture Post website. This simple concept has the potential to create a wealth of information and data on changing environmental conditions, which is important for a society grappling with the effects of environmental change. Picture Posts may be added by anyone interested in monitoring a particular location. The value of a Picture Post is in the commitment of participants to take repeated photographs - monthly, weekly, or even daily - to build up a long-term record over many years. This poster will show examples of Picture Post pictures being used for capturing seasonal plant phenological events, monitoring the recovery of a landscape following a large storm, and intrusion of an invasive species. DEW is being developed by a collaborative effort led by the University of New Hampshire with the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners, the University of Southern Maine, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, with support from NASA. We invite individuals, schools, informal education centers, groups and communities to join. Please visit us at our web site:

Current models in social neuroscience advance that eye contact may automatically recruit cognitive resources. Here, we directly tested this hypothesis by evaluating the distracting strength of eye contact on concurrent visual processing in the well-known Stroop's paradigm. As expected, participants showed stronger Stroop interference under concomitant eye contact as compared to closed eyes. Two control experiments allowed ruling out low-level account of this effect as well as non-specific effect of the presence of open eyes. This suggests that refraining from processing eye contact is actually as difficult as refraining from word reading in the Stroop task. Crucially, the eye contact effect was obtained while gaze was not under the direct focus of attention and the participants were faced with another powerful distracter (the incongruent word) in the task at hand. Thus, there is a cost of being watched even in circumstances where the processing of direct gaze is strongly disfavored. The present results emphasize the crucial status of eye contact in human cognition. PMID:20070959

Confinement and isolation have always confounded the extraordinary endeavor of human spaceflight. Psychosocial health is at the forefront in considering risk factors that imperil missions of 1- to 2-yr duration. Current crewmember selection metrics restricted to behavioral observation by definition observe rather than prevent performance degradation and are thus inadequate when preflight training cannot simulate an entire journey. Nascent techniques to monitor functional and task-related cortical neural activity show promise and can be extended to include whole-brain monitoring. Watching spaceflight crews think can reveal the efficiency of training procedures. Moreover, observing subcortical emotion centers may provide early detection of developing neuropsychiatric disorders. The non-invasive functional neuroimaging modalities electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), and highlights of how they may be engineered for spacecraft are detailed. Preflight and in-flight applications to crewmember behavioral health from current generation, next generation, and generation-after-next neuroscience research studies are also described. The emphasis is on preventing the onset of neuropsychiatric dysfunctions, thus reducing the risk of mission failure due to human error. PMID:15943214

Over the last decade, television screens and display monitors have increased in size considerably, but has this improved our televisual experience? Our working hypothesis was that the audiences adopt a general strategy that “bigger is better.” However, as our visual perceptions do not tap directly into basic retinal image properties such as retinal image size (C. A. Burbeck, 1987), we wondered whether object size itself might be an important factor. To test this, we needed a task that would tap into the subjective experiences of participants watching a movie on different-sized displays with the same retinal subtense. Our participants used a line bisection task to self-report their level of “presence” (i.e., their involvement with the movie) at several target locations that were probed in a 45-min section of the movie “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.” Measures of pupil dilation and reaction time to the probes were also obtained. In Experiment 1, we found that subjective ratings of presence increased with physical screen size, supporting our hypothesis. Face scenes also produced higher presence scores than landscape scenes for both screen sizes. In Experiment 2, reaction time and pupil dilation results showed the same trends as the presence ratings and pupil dilation correlated with presence ratings, providing some validation of the method. Overall, the results suggest that real-time measures of subjective presence might be a valuable tool for measuring audience experience for different types of (i) display and (ii) audiovisual material. PMID:23145293

The potential for structural changes in time trend concentrations of mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), zinc (Zn), and copper (Cu) in the Mediterranean mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis, was examined in Mussel Watch (MW) databases of metal pollution at eighteen coastal stations over a decadal period, from 1992 to 2007. Simultaneously, by using two statistical methods representing both the classical hypothesis-testing and the Bayesian approaches, we found single and multiple trend breaks for Hg (28% of the stations), Cd (17%), and Pb (11%) within trends in connection with anthropogenic and subtle natural environmental changes. Also called change point problems, if not accounted for, these could bias time trend investigations and interpretations. We calculated trend rate differences of 39% and switches up to 1 order of magnitude from classical linear trend assessments. We discuss sampling, analytical, and environmental (both natural and anthropogenic) sources of data set variabilities, showing that, in practice, the overall 16-year analytical performance could be as elevated as the yearly sampling reproducibility. We demonstrate that environmental time trend interpretations benefit from undertaking prior structural change analysis. After decades of MW marine chemical pollution assessments these have proven extremely useful, although the occurrence of trend breaks directly affects the long-term marine environmental monitoring strategies. Our results suggest a broader concept to design monitoring programs in agreement with rapid global anthropogenic and environmental changes. PMID:23035902

U.S. President Richard Milhous Nixon, aboard the U.S.S. Hornet aircraft carrier, used binoculars to watch the Apollo 11 Lunar Mission recovery. The recovery operation took place in the Pacific Ocean where Navy para-rescue men recovered the capsule housing the 3-man Apollo 11 crew. The crew was airlifted to safety aboard the U.S.S. Hornet, where they were quartered in a Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF) for 21 days post mission. The Apollo 11 mission, the first manned lunar mission, launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida via the Saturn V launch vehicle on July 16, 1969 and safely returned to Earth on July 24, 1969. The Saturn V vehicle was developed by the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) under the direction of Dr. Wernher von Braun. Aboard were Neil A. Armstrong, commander; Michael Collins, Command Module (CM) pilot; and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., Lunar Module (LM) pilot. The CM, piloted by Michael Collins remained in a parking orbit around the Moon while the LM, named 'Eagle'', carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, landed on the Moon. Armstrong was the first human to ever stand on the lunar surface, followed by Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin. During 2½ hours of surface exploration, the crew collected 47 pounds of lunar surface material for analysis back on Earth. With the success of Apollo 11, the national objective to land men on the Moon and return them safely to Earth had been accomplished.

Infants gradually learn to share attention, but it is unknown how they acquire skills such as gaze-following. Deák and Triesch (2006) suggest that gaze-following could be acquired if infants learn that adults' gaze direction is likely to be aligned with interesting sights. This hypothesis stipulates that adults tend to look at things that infants find interesting, and that infants could learn by noticing this tendency. We tested the plausibility of this hypothesis through video-based micro-behavioral analysis of naturalistic parent-infant play. The results revealed that 3- to 11-month-old infants strongly preferred watching caregivers handle objects. In addition, when caregivers looked away from their infant they tended to look at their own object-handling. Finally, when infants looked toward the caregiver while she was looking at her own hands, the infant's next eye movement was often toward the caregiver's object-handling. In this way infants receive adequate naturalistic input to learn associations between their parent's gaze direction and the locations of interesting sights. PMID:24387193

The psychological effect of being watched by others has been proven a powerful tool in modulating social behaviors (e.g., charitable giving) and altering cognitive performance (e.g., visual search). Here we tested whether such awareness would affect one of the core elements of human cognition: emotional processing and impulse control. Using an emotion stop-signal paradigm, we found that viewing emotionally-arousing erotic images before attempting to inhibit a motor response impaired participants’ inhibition ability, but such an impairing effect was completely eliminated when participants were led to believe that their facial expressions were monitored by a webcam. Furthermore, there was no post-error slowing in any of the conditions, thus these results cannot be explained by a deliberate speed-accuracy tradeoff or other types of conscious shift in strategy. Together, these findings demonstrate that the interaction between emotional arousal and impulse control can be dependent on one’s state of self-consciousness. Furthermore, this study also highlights the effect that the mere presence of the experimenter may have on participants’ cognitive performance, even if it’s only a webcam. PMID:25653635

The picosecond barrier to high brightness electron pulses has been broken. Electron diffraction harbors great potential for providing atomic resolution to structural changes at critical points -- a real-time view of atomic motions during structural transitions. Femtosecond electron pulses of sufficient number density to execute nearly single-shot structure determinations are needed. This requirement places severe constraints on the electron pulse propagation. A new photoactivated electron gun design has been developed based on an N-body numerical simulation and mean-field calculation of the electron wavepacket propagation that is capable of less than 600 femtosecond electron pulses with high enough brightness to provide structural details in the small shot number limit. Time-resolved diffraction studies with this new instrument have focused on strongly driven solid-liquid phase transitions of aluminum as a model problem of a structural transition. The signal to noise and available diffraction orders were sufficiently high to give direct access to fluctuations leading to the disordering or melting process and the associated radial distribution function. This work gives atomic level details of a solid-liquid phase transition, i.e., we can literally watch the atoms move during melting. The promise of atomically resolving transition state processes is at hand and applications along this line will be discussed.

Purpose To evaluate the degree of three-dimensional (3D) perception and ocular and systemic discomfort in patients with abnormal binocular vision (ABV), and their relationship to stereoacuity while watching a 3D television (TV). Methods Patients with strabismus, amblyopia, or anisometropia older than 9 years were recruited for the ABV group (98 subjects). Normal volunteers were enrolled in the control group (32 subjects). Best-corrected visual acuity, refractive errors, angle of strabismus, and stereoacuity were measured. After watching 3D TV for 20?min, a survey was conducted to evaluate the degree of 3D perception, and ocular and systemic discomfort while watching 3D TV. Results One hundred and thirty subjects were enrolled in this study. The ABV group included 49 patients with strabismus, 22 with amblyopia, and 27 with anisometropia. The ABV group showed worse stereoacuity at near and distant fixation (P<0.001). Ocular and systemic discomfort was, however, not different between the two groups. Fifty-three subjects in the ABV group and all subjects in the control group showed good stereopsis (60?s of arc or better at near), and they reported more dizziness, headache, eye fatigue, and pain (P<0.05) than the other 45 subjects with decreased stereopsis. The subjects with good stereopsis in the ABV group felt more eye fatigue than those in the control group (P=0.031). The subjects with decreased stereopsis showed more difficulty with 3D perception (P<0.001). Conclusions The subjects with abnormal stereopsis showed decreased 3D perception while watching 3D TV. However, ocular and systemic discomfort was more closely related to better stereopsis. PMID:23928879

Tips on Access and How to Watch Tegrity Movies From Jasperse web" chapters also help you navigate. 3. Double clicking on the movie panel makes" button 6. Click on movie of interest 7. Click the arrow to begin play from

The International Halley Watch (IHW) was organized for the purpose of gathering and archiving the most complete record of the apparition of a comet, Comet Halley (1982i = 1986 III = 1P/Halley), ever compiled. The redirection of the International Cometary Explorer (ICE), toward Comet Giacobini-Zinner (1984e = 1985 XIII = 21P/Giacobini-Zinner) prompted the initiation of a formal watch on that comet. All the data collected on P/Giacobini-Zinner and P/Halley have been published on CD-ROM in the Comet Halley Archive. This document contains a printed version of the archive data, collected by amateur astronomers, on these two comets. Volume 1 contains the Comet Giacobini-Zinner data archive and Volume 2 contains the Comet Halley archive. Both volumes include information on how to read the data in both archives, as well as a history of both comet watches (including the organizing of the network of astronomers and lessons learned from that experience).

The International Halley Watch (IHW) was organized for the purpose of gathering and archiving the most complete record of the apparition of a comet, Halley's Comet (1982i = 1986 III = 1P/Halley), ever compiled. The redirection of the International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 (ISEE-3) spacecraft, subsequently renamed the International Cometary Explorer (ICE), toward Comet Giacobini-Zinner (1984e = 1985 XIII = 21P/Giacobini-Zinner) prompted the initiation of a formal watch on that comet. All the data collected on P/Giacobini-Zinner and P/Halley have been published on CD-ROM in the Comet Halley Archive. This document contains a printed version of the archive data, collected by amateur astronomers, on these two comets. Volume 1 contains the Comet Giacobini-Zinner data archive and Volume 2 contains the Comet Halley archive. Both volumes include information on how to read the data in both archives, as well as a history of both comet watches (including the organizing of the network of astronomers and lessons learned from that experience).

Data are presented for trace metals, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), aromatic hydrocarbons and /sup 239/ /sup 240/Pu in Mytilus edulis, M. californianus, and Crassostrea sp. collected in the US Mussel Watch program in 1976-1978 from 62 locations on the US east and west coasts. General similarities in geographical distributions of concentrations were present in all 3 years with at least an order of magnitude elevation of concentrations of Pb, PCBs, and fossil fuel hydrocarbons in bivalves sampled near the larger urban areas. Elevated Cd and /sup 239/ /sup 240/Pu concentrations in bivalves from the central California coast are apparently related to enrichments of Cd and nuclear weapons testing fallout /sup 239/ /sup 240/Pu in intermediate depth water of the North Pacific and upwelling of this water associated with the California Current system. Data have revealed no evidence of local or regional systematic elevations of environmental concentrations of /sup 239/ /sup 240/Pu as a result of effluent releases from nuclear power reactors.

Digital Earth Watch (DEW) involves individuals, schools, organizations and communities in a systematic monitoring project of their local environment, especially vegetation health. The program offers people the means to join the Picture Post network and to study and analyze their own findings using DEW software. A Picture Post is an easy-to-use and inexpensive platform for repeatedly taking digital photographs as a standardized set of images of the entire 360 ° landscape, which then can be shared over the Internet on the Picture Post website. This simple concept has the potential to create a wealth of information and data on changing environmental conditions, which is important for a society grappling with the effects of environmental change. Picture Post participants study change over time in their local area, compare digital images with NASA satellite imagery and contribute towards improving their own communities. A key message in DEW is that although plants are dynamic and respond continuously to their environment, they do so either on a time-scale that most people don't notice or with a subtlety our senses can't detect. DEW has created simple tools for monitoring vegetation as a means towards understanding the connection between global climate change and local effects. Picture Posts may be added by anyone interested in monitoring a particular location. The value of a Picture Post is in the commitment of participants to take repeated photographs - monthly, weekly, or even daily - to build up a long-term record over many years. DEW is being developed by a collaborative effort led by the University of New Hampshire with the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners, the University of Southern Maine, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. This poster will show examples of picture posts and data that can be collected and will describe our soon-to-be-released “ virtual ” picture post cell phone app. The Picture Post network is new and we invite individuals, schools, informal education centers, groups and communities to join.

This document pertains to underground waste storage tanks at the Hanford Site that have been identified to potentially contain a significant amount of ferrocyanide compounds. This document evaluates the need for continuously monitoring the headspace vapors in Ferrocyanide Watch List tanks to detect flammable gases or gases that could indicate the occurrence of a propagating ferrocyanide-nitrate/nitrite reaction. The results of modeling studies and gas monitoring, and sludge sample analyses of actual ferrocyanide tank wastes have indicated no need to continuously monitor the vapor spaces in ferrocyanide tanks. This conclusion is based in part on the following factors: (1) a study performance on waste aging suggests that the ferrocyanide has degraded in the tanks during the more than 35 years of storage; therefore, the ferrocyanide is not present in concentrations that could support an exothermic reaction, also, the moisture present in the waste is sufficient to preclude a self-sustaining (propagating) ferrocyanide-nitrate reaction; (2) evaluation of core sample results from Tank 241-C-109 and Tank 241-C-112 support laboratory studies showing that ferrocyanide has degraded and the fuel concentration in the tanks is considerably lower than postulated by flowsheet simulants; (3) no gases have been identified that would indicate the occurrence of a ferrocyanide nitrate/nitrite reaction; additionally, a self-sustaining ferrocyanide nitrate/nitrite reaction is not possible under current and future planned storage conditions. After reviewing the available information, it is evident that there would be little safety benefit from continuous in-tank vapor monitoring, and the time and commitment of operations schedule and equipment funds are not justified in the face of competing needs.

Mussel watch program coupled with a pilot specimen bank at NIES was conducted from 1983 to 1987, and also from 1993 to 1994, and their results were compared to reveal temporal trends of coastal environment along Japan. Special emphasis was paid to reveal the change of ``background`` level of pollutants by collecting bivalves in remote islands. Several species of mussels (Mytilus edulis galloprovincialis, M. coruscus, Septifer virgatus, Pema viridis), oysters (Saxostrea mordax, Crassostrea gigas) and clams (Ruditapes philippinarum, Tridacna crocea) were collected to cover subfrigid to subtropical zones along Japan islands. The level of TBT decreased considerably between the above two intervals, i.e., from 0.12--0.01 {micro}g/g in mid 80`s to 0.03-n.d. (less than 0.01) {micro}g/g in 1993. This decrease may reflect the start of the regulation in 1990. The clam samples collected at Tokyo bay and stored in specimen bank were found to contain considerable levels (near 0.3 {micro}g/g) of TBT and TPT in 1980, and their levels were almost constant through mid and late 1980`s. Several heavy metals, including Cd, showed interesting spatial distribution patterns; their concentrations tend to be higher in less populated remote islands in western part of Japan than in densely populated areas. Cd concentrations, however, also show apparent correlation with Zn status of each organism (especially evident in Septifer sp.), and the interpretation of the results is not straightforward at this stage. Interestingly, a tropical green mussel, P. viridis, was found to be spreading in some densely populated area including Tokyo and Osaka bays.

U.S. President Richard Milhous Nixon (center), aboard the U.S.S. Hornet aircraft carrier, used binoculars to watch the Apollo 11 Lunar Mission Recovery. Standing next to the President is astronaut Frank Borman, Apollo 8 Commander. The recovery operation took place in the Pacific Ocean where Navy para-rescue men recovered the capsule housing the 3-man Apollo 11 crew. The crew was airlifted to safety aboard the U.S.S. Hornet where they were quartered in a Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF) for 21 days post mission. The Apollo 11 mission, the first manned lunar mission, launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida via the Saturn V launch vehicle on July 16, 1969 and safely returned to Earth on July 24, 1969. The Saturn V vehicle was developed by the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) under the direction of Dr. Wernher von Braun. Aboard were Neil A. Armstrong, commander; Michael Collins, Command Module (CM) pilot; and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., Lunar Module (LM) pilot. The CM, piloted by Michael Collins remained in a parking orbit around the Moon while the LM, named 'Eagle'', carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, landed on the Moon. Armstrong was the first human to ever stand on the lunar surface, followed by Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin. During 2½ hours of surface exploration, the crew collected 47 pounds of lunar surface material for analysis back on Earth. With the success of Apollo 11, the national objective to land men on the Moon and return them safely to Earth had been accomplished.

The NSF-sponsored partnership between the University of New Hampshire (UNH), Elizabeth City State University (ECSU), New Hampshire Community Technical College (NHCTC), and the College of the Albemarle (COA) has implemented a unique series of courses designed to attract undergraduate students with undeclared majors into the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. These courses incorporate student- driven research comparing the Merrimack River (NH/MA) and Pasquotank River watersheds (VA/NC). Entitled Watershed Watch (WW), the courses utilize pedagogical approaches based on hands-on, inquiry-based teaching and learning. In alternating years, a two-week WW summer institute is held in each watershed. Students conduct authentic research on various aspects of the watershed's geology, limnology, and landscape ecology. Then during the academic year, WW students enroll in a course where they are paired with faculty mentors, and engage in more in-depth research projects. Samples of student research include assessing calcium oxalate crystals as an indicator of plant stress in NH red spruce (Picea rubens) and balsam fir (Abies balsamea) and GIS modeling/mapping coastal NC changes resulting from postulated melting of the Greenland ice sheet. After completing the first year in a five-year funding cycle, formative/summative evaluation methods have identified the following student perceptions regarding STEM disciplines: participating students found WW to be enjoyable, exciting, and meaningful; as a result of WW, 60 percent of undeclared students from the four-year institutions (UNH/ECSU) declared a STEM major or minor; and approximately 20 percent of the two-year students (NHCTC/COA) enrolled in four-year STEM programs or are employed in STEM fields.

Monterey Bay Aquarium launched the Seafood Watch program in 2000. The program's Seafood Watch pocket guide is a simple tool that visitors can use to identify seafood from environmentally responsible sources. Since its inception, more than 2 million pocket guides have been distributed to Monterey Bay Aquarium visitors and 20 million have been distributed through partnerships across the United States. Partner institutions such as aquariums, conservation organizations, and businesses also conduct outreach and are working to influence their local seafood purveyors. An evaluation conducted in 2003 and 2004 assessed the program's strategies for increasing awareness and shifting consumer buying habits as they relate to sustainable seafood, including use of the pocket guide. Visitors who picked up pocket guides were surveyed immediately after their aquarium visit, and again four months later. The evaluation found that most visitors continued to use the guides and had changed their seafood buying habits in several respects. Those interviewed also reported some barriers to using the guides. The elements that appear to be critical to the success of the strategy with respect to changing consumer purchasing habits include: a focused distribution approach; providing credible and specific information on problems and solutions to increase action-related knowledge; providing a trigger or prompt that is available at the time of purchase; and reducing barriers to action, at the point of action, by working with seafood purveyors and the broader sustainable seafood movement to increase knowledge and available options. In response to the evaluation, Seafood Watch has strengthened these elements and expanded to help meet the needs of the broader sustainable seafood movement. A process of strategic planning, evaluation, cooperation among partners, and adaptability to the movement's natural evolution has proven to be critical to the program's success in contributing to the development of a marketplace for sustainable seafood. PMID:19821501

With the cooperation of and under contract to Caltech/TriNet, ISTI has developed the SeisNetWatch (also called TriNetWatch) network monitoring and control system. SeisNetWatch (SNW) is a distributed system that separates its monitoring/control tasks into a 3 distinct layers. The layers include a data collection/system control layer, a layer of information storage/retrieval and a layer providing graphical user access from either a stand-alone application or from within a web browser. All components of all layers may be deployed on the same computer, or one any number of distributed computers. Supported platforms include Solaris, Linux and Windows NT, with all components being able to be deployed on any combination of platforms. SNW is currently deployed at Caltech/TriNet, USGS(Golden), CTBTO(Vienna) and BGR(Germany/GERESS Array) monitoring acquisition systems for both COMSERV and Earthworm, that are collecting seismic and infrasound data. Introducing new types of acquisition systems to SNW simply requires interfacing a new collection agent. SNW is delivered with full source and documentation on how to write your own customized data agents. The SNW system provides a centralized control and monitoring tool to network operators to manage large volumes of parametric data such that problematic stations or communications links can be identified and fixed in a rapid manner. The GUI client tool displays usage and performance level for all stations in the TriNet network (370+ stations) and allows an operator to drill down to finer levels of detail for individual stations. TriNet operators use the tool for routine monitoring of the state of health of TriNet. Further, if problems occur the tool is used extensively to determine what corrective actions are needed and how urgent the problems are depending upon the number of stations involved.

Background Users of peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks risk the inadvertent disclosure of personal health information (PHI). In addition to potentially causing harm to the affected individuals, this can heighten the risk of data breaches for health information custodians. Automated PHI detection tools that crawl the P2P networks can identify PHI and alert custodians. While there has been previous work on the detection of personal information in electronic health records, there has been a dearth of research on the automated detection of PHI in heterogeneous user files. Objective To build a system that accurately detects PHI in files sent through P2P file-sharing networks. The system, which we call P2P Watch, uses a pipeline of text processing techniques to automatically detect PHI in files exchanged through P2P networks. P2P Watch processes unstructured texts regardless of the file format, document type, and content. Methods We developed P2P Watch to extract and analyze PHI in text files exchanged on P2P networks. We labeled texts as PHI if they contained identifiable information about a person (eg, name and date of birth) and specifics of the person’s health (eg, diagnosis, prescriptions, and medical procedures). We evaluated the system’s performance through its efficiency and effectiveness on 3924 files gathered from three P2P networks. Results P2P Watch successfully processed 3924 P2P files of unknown content. A manual examination of 1578 randomly selected files marked by the system as non-PHI confirmed that these files indeed did not contain PHI, making the false-negative detection rate equal to zero. Of 57 files marked by the system as PHI, all contained both personally identifiable information and health information: 11 files were PHI disclosures, and 46 files contained organizational materials such as unfilled insurance forms, job applications by medical professionals, and essays. Conclusions PHI can be successfully detected in free-form textual files exchanged through P2P networks. Once the files with PHI are detected, affected individuals or data custodians can be alerted to take remedial action. PMID:22776692

Our social skills are critically determined by our ability to understand and appropriately respond to actions performed by others. However despite its obvious importance, the mechanisms enabling action understanding in humans have remained largely unclear. A popular but controversial belief is that parts of the motor system contribute to our ability to understand observed actions. Here, using a novel behavioral paradigm, we investigated this belief by examining a causal relation between action production, and a component of action understanding - outcome prediction, the ability of a person to predict the outcome of observed actions. We asked dart experts to watch novice dart throwers and predict the outcome of their throws. We modulated the feedbacks provided to them, caused a specific improvement in the expert's ability to predict watched actions while controlling the other experimental factors, and exhibited that a change (improvement) in their outcome prediction ability results in a progressive and proportional deterioration in the expert's own darts performance. This causal relationship supports involvement of the motor system in outcome prediction by humans of actions observed in others. PMID:25384755

A genetic analysis of age of onset of alcoholism was performed on the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism data released for Genetic Analysis Workshop 14. Our study illustrates an application of the log-normal age of onset model in our software Genetic Epidemiology Models (GEMs). The phenotype ALDX1 of alcoholism was studied. The analysis strategy was to first find

The Keck HydroWatch Project is a multidisciplinary project devoted to understanding how water interacts with atmosphere, vegetation, soil, and fractured bedrock. It is experimenting with novel techniques to monitor and trace water pathways through these mediums, including developing an intensive wireless sensor network, in the Angelo Coast Range and Sagehen Reserves in California. The sensor time-series data is being supplemented with periodic campaigns experimenting with sampling and tracing techniques, including water chemistry, stable isotope analysis, electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), and neutron probes. Mechanistic and statistical modeling is being performed with these datasets. One goal of the HydroWatch project is to prototype technologies for intensive sampling that can be upscaled to the watershed scale. The Berkeley Sensor Database was designed to manage the large volumes of heterogeneous data coming from this sensor network. This system is based on the Observations Data Model (ODM) developed by the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI). Due to need for the use of open-source software, UC Berkeley ported the ODM to a LAMP system (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl). As of August 2010, the Berkeley Sensor Database contains 33 million measurements from 1200 devices, with several thousand new measurements being added each hour. Data for this research is being collected from a wide variety of equipment. Some of this equipment is experimental and subject to constant modification, others are industry standards. Well pressure transducers, sap flow sensors, experimental microclimate motes, standard weather stations, and multiple rock and soil moisture sensors are some examples. While the Hydrologic Information System (HIS) and the ODM are optimized for data interoperability, they are not focused on facility management and data quality control which occur at a complex research site. In this presentation, we describe our implementation of the ODM, the modifications we made to the ODM schema to include incident reports, concepts of 'stations', reuse and moving of equipment, and NASA data quality levels. The HydroWatch researchers' data use vary radically, so we implemented a number of different accessors to the data, from real-time graphing during storms to direct SQL queries for automated analysis to full data dumps for heavy statistical modeling.

the winter as dormant fungal threads within apple terminal buds. Now is the time to keep a close watch1 Facts for Fancy Fruit INDEX FFF03-04 May 12, 2003 Apples are at petal fall in northern regions is a relatively new growth regulator for use on apples. It can reduce shoot growth dramatically

The concentrations of metals in the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis (Lamarck, 1819) prevalent along the west coast of the Cape Peninsula, Cape Town are presented. The mussels were sampled during the routine "Mussel Watch Programme" (MWP) between 1985 and 2008. Levels of Cu, Cd, Pb, Zn, Hg, Fe and Mn at Cape Point, Hout Bay, Sea Point, Milnerton and Bloubergstrand were analysed for autumn and spring and showed consistent similar mean values for the five sites. There was a highly significant temporal (annual and seasonal) difference between all metals as well as a significant difference in metal concentrations between the five sites. The concentrations of Zn, Fe, Cd and Pb were higher than previous investigations and possibly indicative of anthropogenic sources of metals. The results provide a strong motivation to increase efforts in marine pollution research in the area. PMID:25127737

As a first step toward building a smart home behavioral monitoring system capable of classifying a wide variety of human behavior, a wireless sensor network (WSN) system is presented for RSSI localization. The low-cost, non-intrusive system uses a smart watch worn by the user to broadcast data to the WSN, where the strength of the radio signal is evaluated at each WSN node to localize the user. A method is presented that uses simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) for system calibration, providing automated fingerprinting associating the radio signal strength patterns to the user's location within the living space. To improve the accuracy of localization, a novel refinement technique is introduced that takes into account typical movement patterns of people within their homes. Experimental results demonstrate that the system is capable of providing accurate localization results in a typical living space. PMID:25570416

The utility of the bivalve sentinel organism approach to monitoring for some chemicals of environmental concern in coastal and estuarine areas has been evaluated by regional and national programs and by smaller scale research efforts during the past 15 years. The extent and sever...

as we watched the vehicle disappear around a bend in the road. Chen, a paleontologist at the Chinese the Cambrian explosion. Molecular Clocks and LagerstÃ¤tten molecular analysis, inparticular a technique called the molecular clock, has been key in the new thinking about when the earliest animals arose. The clock idea

A preschooler's ability to delay gratification in the waiting task is predictive of several developmental outcomes, despite this task's relatively low reliability level. Success in this task depends on the use of distraction strategies. The new Watch-and-Wait Task (WWT) has been developed to enhance reliability and to investigate whether the…

Watching Hydrogen Bonds Break: A Transient Absorption Study of Water Tobias Steinel, John B. Asbury of picoseconds, observe hydrogen bond breaking and monitor the equilibration of the hydrogen bond network in water. In addition, the vibrational lifetime, the time constant for hydrogen bond breaking, and the rate

MBA Internship ProgramC o nnect wit h our students Â· Hire top talent Â· Watch your organizati on g of full-time experience. Internship Details Start date: September onward Duration: 4 month minimum Hours of the project and completes a student evaluation form at the end of the internship Our Students Commonly held

The development and implementation of the Piemonte RegionSs real-time Flood Fore- casting System is described. The area of interest is the Upper Po River basin (North- west Italy) of approximately 37000 km2 and its river network of about 3000 Km and 3 big lakes. FloodWatch, a GIS-based decision support system for real-time flood fore- casting has been developed and operationally

Although physical activity (PA) has been inversely associated with depressive symptoms, it is not clear whether regular PA and television watching are associated with clinical depression risk. The authors conducted a prospective analysis involving 49,821 US women from the Nurses’ Health Study who were free from depressive symptoms at baseline (1996). Information on PA was obtained from validated questionnaires completed in 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, and 2000; analyses were conducted using the cumulative average of PA (minutes/day) with a 2-year latency period applied. Participants were asked about television-watching habits in 1992. Cox proportional hazards regression models adjusted for multiple risk factors were used to estimate relative risks of clinical depression (self-reported physician-diagnosed depression or use of antidepressants). During 10 years of follow-up (1996–2006), 6,505 incident cases of depression were documented. Higher levels of PA were associated with lower depression risk. The multivariate relative risk comparing the highest level of PA (?90 minutes/day) with the lowest (<10 minutes/day) was 0.80 (95% confidence interval: 0.70, 0.92; Ptrend < 0.001). In contrast, the risk of depression increased with increasing television-watching time. The multivariate relative risk comparing women who spent 21 hours/week or more watching television with those who spent 0–1 hour/week was 1.13 (95% confidence interval: 1.00, 1.27; Ptrend = 0.01). Analyses simultaneously considering PA and television watching suggested that both contributed independently to depression risk. PMID:21984659

We extend our previous work on the cosmology of Coleman-de Luccia bubble collisions. Within a set of approximations we calculate the effects on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) as seen from inside a bubble which has undergone such a collision. We find that the effects are always qualitatively similar—an anisotropy that depends only on the angle to the collision direction—but can produce a cold or hot spot of varying size, as well as power asymmetries along the axis determined by the collision. With other parameters held fixed the effects weaken as the amount of inflation which took place inside our bubble grows, but generically survive order 10 efolds past what is required to solve the horizon and flatness problems. In some regions of parameter space the effects can survive arbitrarily long inflation.

[RIGHT] This NASA Hubble Space Telescope picture of Mars was taken on Sept. 12, one day after the arrival of the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft and only five hours before the beginning of autumn in the Martian northern hemisphere. (Mars is tilted on its axis like Earth, so it has similar seasonal changes, including an autumnal equinox when the Sun crosses Mars' equator from the northern to the southern hemisphere).

This Hubble picture was taken in support of the MGS mission. Hubble is monitoring the Martian weather conditions during the early phases of MGS aerobraking; in particular, the detection of large dust storms are important inputs into the atmospheric models used by the MGS mission to plan aerobraking operations.

Though a dusty haze fills the giant Hellas impact basin south of the dark fin-shaped feature Syrtis Major, the dust appears to be localized within Hellas. Unless the region covered expands significantly, the dust will not be of concern for MGS aerobraking.

Other early signs of seasonal transitions on Mars are apparent in the Hubble picture. The northern polar ice cap is blanketed under a polar hood of clouds that typically start forming in late northern summer. As fall progresses, sunlight will dwindle in the north polar region and the seasonal polar cap of frozen carbon dioxide will start condensing onto the surface under these clouds.

Hubble observations will continue until October 13, as MGS carefully uses the drag of the Martian atmosphere to circularize its orbit about the Red Planet. After mid-October, Mars will be too close to the Sun, in angular separation, for Hubble to safely view.

The image is a composite of three separately filtered colored images taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). Resolution is 35 miles (57 kilometers) per pixel (picture element). The Pathfinder landing site near Ares Valles is about 2200 miles (3600 kilometers) west of the center of this image, so was not visible during this observation. Mars was 158 million miles (255 million kilometers) from Earth at the time.

[LEFT]

An image of this region of Mars, taken in June 1997, is shown for comparison. The Hellas basin is filled with bright clouds and/or surface frost. More water ice clouds are visible across the planet than in the Sept. image, reflecting the effects of the changing season. Mars appears larger because it was 44 million miles (77 million kilometers) closer to Earth than in the September image.

This image and other images and data received from the Hubble Space Telescope are posted on the World Wide Web on the Space Telescope Science Institute home page at URL http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/

A new automated on-line GC-flame ionization detection system for long-term stationary measurements of atmospheric C2-C8 hydrocarbons in the lower ppt range is described. The system is operated at the Global Atmosphere Watch Observatory Hohenpeissenberg (47 degrees 48'N, 11 degrees 01'E) in rural south Germany. Atmospheric mixing ratios of more than 40 different hydrocarbons can be continuously measured in 80 min time intervals. Corresponding detection limits are below 3 ppt, except for propene, butenes and benzene (about 10 ppt). Detailed quality assurance and quality control protocols are described which are applied to routine operation and data analysis. The various error contributions, overall precision, and accuracy for all measured compounds are discussed in detail. Typical ambient air mixing ratios are in the range of a few ppt to a few ppb, and corresponding measurement accuracies are below 10% or 10 ppt. For less than 20% of the analyzed compounds measurement accuracies are worse, mainly because of insufficient peak separation, blank values or reduced reproducibilities. The present system was tested in international intercomparison experiments (NOMHICE, AMOHA). For most of the C2-C8 hydrocarbons analyzed, our results agreed better than +/- 10% (20% NOMHICE phase 5) or +/- 10 ppt with the corresponding reference values. PMID:12058932

Cetacean-focused tourism in Taiwan has grown rapidly since 1997. This development, measured in terms of both number of tour boats and visitors, has resulted in many resource management challenges stemming from the absence of regulation and scientific data. To fill this void in empirical evidence, we used 464 sighting records from 2002 to 2005 to model the impact of cetacean-focused tourism. Cox proportional hazard analysis indicated cetacean avoidance responses to cetacean watching boats were strongly associated with pod size, mother-calf pairs, and cetacean-vessel distances. Mother-calf pairs abandoned their avoidance tactic by 55% compared to noncalf groups when tour boats approached. Second, the hazard ratio of abundance was 0.996, suggesting that the odds of encountering avoidance responses by the cetaceans decreased by 42% for every 100-member increase in the cetacean pod size. Last, distances maintained by boats from the cetaceans was positively related to avoidance responses (i.e., less avoidance behavior with closer interaction). Based on our findings, we have the following recommendations: (a) limit vessels from approaching mothers with calves, (b) limit vessels from approaching small groups of cetaceans, (c) reduced avoidance behavior to boat traffic may be a red flag for potential long-term disturbance, and (d) apply the "precautionary principle" based on the best scientific information available in cetacean-based tourism in Taiwan. These recommendations will help contribute to the sustainable development of cetacean-focused tourism in Taiwan.

92STEREO Watches the Sun Kick Up a Storm! A solar tsunami that occurred in February 13, 2009 has expand between 05:45 and 06:15? ( Note '05:45' means 5:45 o'clock Universal Time). Problem 3 - From your:45 o'clock Universal Time). Answer: From the scale of 45,000 km/mm, the difference in the ring radii

://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq5nrHz9I94 Steps to make Raspberry Pi Supercomputer Prof Simon Cox Computational Engineering to put the image from the disk to your card 3. Boot on Pi 4. Expand image to fill card using the option programming without Fortran being a possibility? $ sudo apt-get install gfortran 11. Read about MPI on the Pi

Planet formation is a hazardous process. These four snapshots, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, show dust disks around embryonic stars in the Orion Nebula being 'blowtorched' by a blistering flood of ultraviolet radiation from the region's brightest star. Within these disks are the seeds of planets. The doomed systems look like hapless comets, with wayward tails of gas boiling off the withering, pancake-shaped disks. The Frisbee-shaped disks, called protoplanetary disks, are wider than our solar system and reside in the centers of the cocoons of gas. These cocoons were formed from material evaporating off the surface of the disks. Evidence from Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 suggests that dust grains in the disk are already forming larger particles, which range in size from snowflakes to gravel. But these particles may not have time to grow into full-fledged planets because of the relentless 'hurricane' of radiation from the nebula's hottest star, called Theta 1 Orionis C. In the picture at top left, the disk is the green-colored oval near the center. Radiation from the hot star is heating up the disk, causing matter to dissipate, like steam evaporating from the surface of boiling water. A strong 'stellar wind,' a stream of particles moving at 4,500 to 8,900 miles per hour (7,200 to 14,400 kilometers per hour), is propelling the material away from the disk. The material is glowing because it is being energized by radiation from the hot star. Located 1,500 light-years away, the Orion Nebula is the nearest 'star factory' to Earth. The Hubble pictures were taken Feb. 26, 1998 and Jan. 11, 1999. Credits: NASA, J. Bally (University of Colorado, Boulder, CO), H. Throop (Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO), C.R. O'Dell (Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN)

The Arctic coastal zone in wintertime is a complex region characterized by a highly dynamic sea-ice cover, low temperatures and darkness. Sea ice near the coast may be drifting at speeds of up to several km/h or may remain stationary for months before breaking away in a matter of minutes. The dynamics of coastal landfast ice have received increasing attention in recent years because of their importance for human activities, ecosystems and potential impacts of large-scale Arctic change on the coastal zone. Observing nearshore ice motion is therefore an important but challenging task requiring a system that runs nearly continuously and has the ability to see through darkness, cloud and fog. Here, we present data from a number of coastal radar systems that have been observing coastal ice dynamics at Barrow during different intervals starting in 1973. A comparison of monthly summary data suggests that coastal ice was more mobile in the period 2004-2011 than it was between 1973-76 and that the duration of the landfast ice season has become shorter over this time. Animations of the data reveal complex dynamics such as small-scale eddies and interaction with the seabed. We use sparse optical flow techniques to generate 2D ice motion fields and delineate the seaward edge of the landfast ice cover. We compare ice velocities with local wind data and ocean current data from nearby under-ice moorings. We also examine divergence and shear during ridge building events. Further study of timeseries of radar imagery reveals the occasional presence of stationary floes amid fields of drifting ice. Such features are evidence of seafloor gouging, a process that represents a significant hazard for submarine infrastructure in ice-covered waters. This underscores the important role that coastal radars have to play in hazard monitoring. We also present technical and logistical lessons learnt from decades of operating coastal radars in the Arctic that will be ever more valuable in coming years as human activity increases in what is currently the most under-observed coastline in the U.S.

A chunk of glacier was threatening to fall into an Andean lake and cause major flooding in a Peruvian city of 60,000. A fissure has appeared in the glacier that feeds Lake Palcacocha near the city of Huaraz, 270 km north of Lima. If the piece breaks off, ensuing floods would take 15 minutes to reach the city. In 1941, the lake overflowed and caused massive destruction, killing 7,000 people. The city can be seen in the lower left part of the two images, acquired this week and 18 months ago. Lake Palcacocha is in the upper right corner of the image at the head of a valley, below the snow and glacier cap. The inset image shows an enlargement of the lake and the glacier occupying the cirque valley above it. The images are being provided to the Peruvian authorities and geologists to help them assess the state of the glacier, and compare the recent image with historic data.

These images were acquired on November 5, 2001 and April 8, 2003 by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA's Terra satellite. With its 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region, and its high spatial resolution of 15 to 90 meters (about 50 to 300 feet), ASTER images Earth to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet.

ASTER is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched December 18, 1999, on NASA's Terra satellite. The instrument was built by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. A joint U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and the data products.

The broad spectral coverage and high spectral resolution of ASTER will provide scientists in numerous disciplines with critical information for surface mapping, and monitoring of dynamic conditions and temporal change. Example applications are: monitoring glacial advances and retreats; monitoring potentially active volcanoes; identifying crop stress; determining cloud morphology and physical properties; wetlands evaluation; thermal pollution monitoring; coral reef degradation; surface temperature mapping of soils and geology; and measuring surface heat balance. Dr. Anne Kahle at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, is the U.S. Science team leader; Bjorn Eng of JPL is the project manager. The Terra mission is part of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, a long- term research effort to understand and protect our home planet. Through the study of Earth, NASA will help to provide sound science to policy and economic decision-makers so as to better life here, while developing the technologies needed to explore the universe and search for life beyond our home planet. Size: 28.4 x 30.5 km (17.6 x 18.9 miles); 6 x 6 km (3.6 x 3.6 miles) Location: 9.5 deg. South lat., 77.5 deg. West long. Orientation: North at top Image Data: ASTER bands 1,2, and 3. Original Data Resolution: 15 m Date Acquired: November 5, 2001 and April 8, 2003

Objective To compare the effects of pelvic floor muscle training and watchful waiting on pelvic floor symptoms in a primary care population of women aged 55 years and over with symptomatic mild pelvic organ prolapse. Design Randomised controlled trial. Setting Dutch primary care. Participants Women aged 55 years or over with symptomatic mild prolapse (leading edge above the hymen) were identified by screening. Exclusion criteria were current prolapse treatment or treatment in the previous year, malignancy of pelvic organs, current treatment for another gynaecological disorder, severe/terminal illness, impaired mobility, cognitive impairment, and insufficient command of the Dutch language. Interventions Pelvic floor muscle training versus watchful waiting. Main outcome measures The primary outcome was change in bladder, bowel, and pelvic floor symptoms measured with the Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory-20 (PFDI-20), three months after the start of treatment. Secondary outcomes were changes in condition specific and general quality of life, sexual function, degree of prolapse, pelvic floor muscle function, and patients’ perceived change in symptoms. Results Of the 287 women who were randomised to pelvic floor muscle training (n=145) or watchful waiting (n=142), 250 (87%) completed follow-up. Participants in the intervention group improved by (on average) 9.1 (95% confidence interval 2.8 to 15.4) points more on the PFDI-20 than did participants in the watchful waiting group (P=0.005). Of women in the pelvic floor muscle training group, 57% (82/145) reported an improvement in overall symptoms from the start of the study compared with 13% (18/142) in the watchful waiting group (P<0.001). Other secondary outcomes showed no significant difference between the groups. Conclusions Although pelvic floor muscle training led to a significantly greater improvement in PFDI-20 score, the difference between the groups was below the presumed level of clinical relevance (15 points). Nevertheless, 57% of the participants in the intervention group reported an improvement of overall symptoms. More studies are needed to identify factors related to success of pelvic floor muscle training and to investigate long term effects. Trial registration Dutch Trial Register (www.trialregister.nl) identifier: NTR2047. PMID:25533442

The AMC’s citizen scientist monitoring program, Mountain Watch, engages hikers in observational monitoring while recreating in the northern Appalachian Mountains. The program uses two monitoring activities:1) tracking the phenology of 11 mountain flowers species, and 2) the visitors real world perception of on-mountain visibility and its ‘quality’ with proximate monitored air quality parameters. The Mountain Watch program objectives are a) to engage and educate the public through hands-on monitoring, b) to motivate the participant to take further action towards environmental stewardship, and c) to provide supplemental data to AMC’s ongoing science-based research to further our understanding of the impact of human activity on mountain ecosystems. The Mountain Watch plant monitoring includes recording the time and location of alpine and forest plants flowering and other phenological phases using AMC field guides and datasheets. In the White Mountains of New Hampshire concurrent meteorological data, including soil temperature, is paired with the phenology observations as part of AMC’s research to develop spatial and temporal phenology models with air and soil temperature for northeastern mountains. Mountain Watch’s visibility monitoring program has hikers record visual range and rate the view at select vistas in comparison to a clear day view photo guide when visiting AMC’s backcountry huts. The results are compared to proximate air quality measurements, which assists in determining how White Mountain National Forest air quality related values and natural resources management objectives are being met. Since 2006 the Mountain Watch program has received over 3,500 citizen datasheets for plant reproductive phenology and visibility monitoring. We estimate that we have reached more than 15,000 hikers through our facility based education programming focused on air quality and phenology and field monitoring hikes. While we consider this good success in engaging hikers to date, the ratio of resource expenditures in recruiting volunteers and QA/QCing their data for actual research application has been high. Mountain Watch staff are now refining the program to achieve education and research goals a manner that is sustainable into the future with limited fiscal and staff resources. The quality of our citizen phenology observations, in comparison to staff monitoring, has lead to refinements including directing general audience hikers to well-defined trailside observation stations, growing our more skilled amateur botanist volunteer base, and use of remote cameras for quality controls and better temporal coverage. Visibility monitoring at four mountain vistas has recently been analyzed in the context of policy applications. Refinements will be presented that will further inform natural resource management of air quality in relation to Clean Air Act Air Quality Related Values and a potential visibility focused particulate matter secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standard. Overall lessons learned, regarding audience considerations, resource needs, and long-term sustainability, from our 5-year field based geoscience programs will be discussed.

Digital Earth Watch (DEW) involves individuals, schools, organizations and communities in a systematic monitoring project of their local environment, especially vegetation health. The DEW Picture Post network offers people the means to make and share their own observations. A Picture Post is an easy-to-use and inexpensive platform for repeatedly taking digital photographs as a standardized set of images of the entire 360° landscape, which then can be shared over the Internet on the Picture Post website. This simple concept has the potential to create a wealth of information and data on changing environmental conditions, which is important for a society grappling with the effects of climate change. As a web-based program, it is critical to bring in new participants and to convey technical, scientific, and participant information with little or no human interaction. Once they get going, it is also important to keep participants engaged by getting their feedback as well as by sharing their experiences. This presentation will demonstrate our use of video to enhance the program, in particular the power of video for teaching skills needed to start up and contribute to a picture post, to convey findings and other scientific information collected at picture posts, and to engage participants and the community in an ongoing effort in monitoring and understanding their local environment and changing conditions. A DEW video library is being developed by a collaborative effort led by the University of New Hampshire with the University of Southern Maine, and Concord Academy. We invite individuals, schools, informal education centers, groups and communities to join: visit us atPicture Post is supported by NASA

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) Strategic Plan: 2008-2015 (WMO, 2009a) WMO/GAW pays attention to systematical improvement of the quality of observations at global or regional monitoring sites. To ensure the comparability and compatibility of the measurements worldwide it is essential to maintain a traceability chain to the primary standard in the different laboratories around the world as well as to establish a quality control system. Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), is reported to be very rare in the atmosphere at the global averaged annual mole fraction of about 7 ppt, it is one of the greenhouse gases regulated by Kyoto protocol and is increasing at a rate of 0.22 ppt yr-1. Development of a working (or transfer) standard with very low concentration of SF6 requires expert technologies and several knowhow of gas metrology. In order to meet the Data Quality Objective (DQO), the KMA has cooperated with the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS), which is the National Metrology Institute in South Korea. So long as the Central Calibration Laboratory (CCL) for SF6 was established, the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) is now trying to take another step forward to systematically support GAW stations in improving their traceability and quality system for SF6, thereby making a contribution to the WMO/GAW. Through hosting the World Calibration Center for SF6, which is one of GAW facilities, KMA will contribute to harmonization of the global SF6 observations in the long run. This work performed to demonstrate some measurement results on SF6 which complies with the DQOs and is traceable to the WMO mole fraction scale for SF6. In order to produce a working standard which is traceable to the WMO scale, we developed highly precise method of a Gas Chromatography/Electron Capture Detector (GC/ECD) calibrated against the five cylinders (from NOAA, 2011) of the WMO scale. For all analysis the measurement repeatability was < 0.02 ppt (standard deviation) and analyzer's stability was controlled within a drift of 0.02 ppt. Finally, a working standard which is consistent with WMO scale and satisfies the WMO DQOs of ±0.02 ppt was successfully produced and is ready to be transferred to the GAW stations.

Traditional health practitioners (THP) far outnumber biomedical staff in Malawi. They are generally well-known, accepted, and trusted by villagers, and are respected guardians of sociocultural values and opinion leaders concerning health. Many treat 5-6 sexually transmitted disease patients per day. The National AIDS Program therefore enlisted the collaboration of the Herbalist Association of Malawi in a special AIDS project. Objectives were to train THPs as peer educators, increase biomedical practitioners' awareness of traditional healing practices, and promote greater communication and cooperation between THPs and the biomedical sector. Although many THPs are illiterate, their generally literate secretaries help facilitate use of the manual and the dissemination of information. The first training course was organized for THPs from two districts in 1992 with seven more following to train a total 234 THPs. Biomedical practitioners from the district provide support. A participatory approach is used to engage THPs in exercises and group discussions. Follow-up has shown success with THPs understanding that AIDS is incurable and that is has a big impact upon the community. 91% were conducting AIDS education sessions, several have trained other healers in their districts, and some actively distribute condoms in their communities. The project now wants to train traditional birth attendants and involve biomedical health staff in record keeping for the THPs on condom distribution. PMID:12318836

Describes a program initiated by the Cabrillo Beach Museum (San Pedro, California) and the American Cetacean Society to take students of the fourth grade through high school on half-day cruises to observe gray whales. College students assist in the program with related field projects and presentations in the schools. (JR)

Four rats and four pigeons were monitored while performing retrospective timing tasks. All animals displayed collateral behaviors which could have mediated their temporal judgements. Statistical analysis made a good case for such mediation in the case of two pigeons performing on a spatially-differentiated response, but not for the two responding on a color-differentiated response. For the rats, all of which

In response to the growing problem of sexual abuse of children in the Philippines, the ReachOut Foundation, the Department of Health, and Program for Appropriate Technology in Health Foundation, Philippines designed a media campaign targeting primarily buyers and sellers of child sex workers. By linking the issue of sexual abuse of children to sexually transmitted disease and HIV, the campaign seeks to modify prevailing practices and attitudes. It also aims to motivate policymakers and other concerned groups to guarantee that children everywhere enjoy their fundamental rights free and secure from all forms of sexual exploitation. Focusing on two key messages: ¿Stop child prostitution¿ and ¿Protect children from AIDS¿, these two advertisements with different storylines were created to run on television. Due to the sensitive nature of the campaign, an extensive pretesting of the advertisements using the Buy Test system methodology was conducted. A total of 130 25-40-year-old male residents from slum areas in Metro Manila were interviewed. In addition, a series of focus-group discussions were also conducted to provide qualitative inputs. Positive reactions were documented among the respondents. PMID:12348689

An acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) education program sponsored by World Vision of India was effective in reaching low-income adolescent girls in Bombay. During the preparatory phase, household surveys, interviews, and focus group discussions were conducted to gain insight into the daily lives, interests, sexual activities, and health problems of female adolescents. These activities identified a need for support and cooperation of the parents of these girls and the broader community, services such as child care for younger siblings to facilitate attendance, promotion of self-confidence and self-expression, and discussion of AIDS within the broader context of women's status and rights. The curriculum covered topics such as being a woman, puberty, sexuality, sexual exploitation and harassment, the human immune system, and protection against AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. These messages were communicated through lectures, videos, plays, puppet shows, quizzes, story telling, role plays, and group discussions. The course was supplemented by a community awareness program involving community leaders, mothers of adolescent females, young men, and adolescent boys. A total of 76 girls (average age, 14 years) attended the 7-session course. A follow-up survey indicated that knowledge about AIDS, menstruation, and reproduction increased significantly over baseline; 62% of participants reported they had talked to others about AIDS since the course. World Vision has since expanded its Women and AIDS project to male and female adolescents and adults in 21 slums and two industrial complexes in Bombay. PMID:12291989

The International Tribunal for Children's Rights (ITCR) was established to conduct individual and public inquiries and propose concrete solutions to violations of children's rights. This article reports on the efforts of the ITCR to enforce extraterritorial laws in response to the international dimension of child sex exploitation. The primary message being advocated is that travelers cannot go to foreign countries to engage in sexual crimes against children, evade criminal prosecution in the countries where the crimes are committed and then expect to return home without any consequences. In its first public hearings held in Paris, France to the address the effectiveness of extraterritorial legislation, governments and nongovernmental organizations informed the ITCR about their attempts to halt child sexual exploitation. Several changes needed to make extraterritorial laws more effective were cited. These include public awareness-raising; supporting existing instruments; application of preventive approaches to child abuse; and sensitizing and motivating judicial, police and administrative authorities to provide for the needs to fight child sex tourism. PMID:12348687

Human resources is out, human capital is in. This article describes how a simple departmental name change has propelled the use of data-driven, observation-based systems that recognize teachers as the primary influence on student achievement. Called the new "it" term in K-12, human capital management (HCM) aligns the development of workers…

Those who have contributed to the technology education field for many years are known for their teaching, written work, presentations, research, and recognition received from professional groups. This article highlights six selected individuals who have shown outstanding leadership ability as educators early in their careers. They are: (1) Jeff…

It is generally assumed that the fundamental laws of physics are those of quantum physics, and that classical physics is only an approximation valid under certain conditions. However, the passage from quantum-to-classical and its conditions of validity are still hotly debated today. We may, for example, ask the following question: in a quantum world, particles exhibit interference phenomena. Why is it that interferences are never observed in a classical world except, of course, with classical waves? Equivalently, why is it that we do not see linear superpositions of macroscopically distinguishable states? A possible answer relies on the concept of decoherence. Although implicit in previous work, this concept was introduced explicitly at the beginning of the 1980s, and after a rather modest start, it has become more and more popular in domains like quantum information (Section 8.4) and quantum measurement (Section 10.3), where it plays a major role. After having explained the concept of decoherence with the help of an elementary example, we shall describe experiments where decoherence is manifest at mesoscopic scales, intermediate between microscopic and macroscopic scales, that is, on the order of a few ?m.

Do popular authors of African detective fiction use their sleuths to clean up what they perceive to be post-colonial crimes? And is it possible for readers of whodunnits to make any sort of serious assessment of the socio-economic conditions of a country through following the trail of these ‘ethical eyes’? This article investigates Dan Fulani's Special Agent Pius Shale 005,

This column highlights recently published articles that are of interest to the readership of this publication. We encourage ABRF members to forward information on articles they feel are important and useful to Clive Slaughter, Georgia Regents University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership, 1425 Prince Ave., Athens, GA 30606, USA (Phone: 706-713-2216; Fax: 706-713-2221; E-mail; cslaught@uga.edu), or to any member of the editorial board. Article summaries reflect the reviewer's opinions and not necessarily those of the association.

Discusses the importance of phonics instruction and the different types of phonics instruction. Notes that phonics instruction in these technological times means computers, and the Internet can be a valuable resource to teachers who wish to provide drill-and-practice opportunities, particularly for students who seem unmotivated to learn. Provides…

Young girls and female adolescents living on the streets of Rio de Janeiro are often open to discrimination, abuse, violence, and exploitation from society and male peers. They are ignorant of and misinformed about bodily functions, lack access to and information on health services and family planning, and run a high risk of pregnancy, unsafe abortions, HIV/sexually transmitted disease (STD) infections, drug abuse, and other health problems. This paper describes the work of the Centre for the Defense of the Rights of Children and Adolescents in combating these problems since 1988. Center workers first met the girls on the street, and began informal conversations. Gradually, trust was gained, and staff were able to determine some of the girls' needs. Help was provided to the girls in securing identification papers. Workers eventually offered to accompany girls to health clinics. Successful experiences at the clinics yielded the establishment of reference services where girls could go for physical exams, prenatal car, births, and the treatment of STDs. Through focus groups, the girls have helped develop a video on AIDS, printed educational materials, memory and board games, and most recently t-shirts with an education theme. Girls, however, did get bored viewing the video, and had limited ability to maintain and carry printed materials in their street existence. The program has proved successful with girls ultimately seeking clinic help on their own. A special ID card testifies to their rights to receive services. Center staff support the slow development of the program and their relationships with the girls as important in gaining trust. PMID:12285811

Access to the article is free, however registration and sign-in are required. Plants and animals adjust responses to their environments through small molecules, including metabolites, which interact with their circadian clocks.

Reviews ten Web sites that are designed to answer basic legal questions for the layperson. They provide resources on a broad range of legal topics, such as divorce, real estate, and criminal justice, as well as legal forms and information on finding a lawyer. (LRW)

Students use inclined planes as they recreate the difficult task of raising a monolith of rock to build a pyramid. They compare the push and pull of different-sized blocks up an inclined plane, determine the angle of inclination, and learn the changes that happen when the angle is increased or decreased.

Learners observe projectile motion by launching wooden balls off of a table top. They set up a rubber-band launcher so that each ball experiences a consistent amount of force. Learners vary the amount of force to see if the speed the ball moves horizontally affects its falling rate. Learners can also use differently sized balls to test this variable in the experiment. This activity starts on p.37 of the manual. This manual contains 4 activities related to the Spectra's Force comic book published by the American Physical Society.

The Third Army Area of the Royal Thai Army collaborated with the Ministry of Public Health, CDC, and PATH in developing an AIDS education program for military conscripts. A qualitative research via focus group discussion was first done to ensure that the program would correspond with the needs and wishes of the conscripts. Results of the study revealed that many conscripts believed that regular STD screening would protect them against infection. Conscripts also indicated that AIDS education should be conducted by conscripts for conscripts in an informal and interesting way and that AIDS messages should make them think rather than fearful. The program was subsequently modified to a peer-based one and was later pretested among soldiers who were suggested as peer educators by focus group participants. Further changes were made to the program after trainees requested more information on basic facts, sex education, and communication techniques. The present three-day training course includes ice-breaking exercises, a seminar on peer activities, and training in educational methodologies, sex education and communication techniques. Five peer educators from five bases--all medical corps conscripts--have now educated 3500 recruits. Evaluations showed that the program is a cost-effective means of raising awareness and increasing knowledge about AIDS/HIV. The program is currently investigating ways to encourage behavioral change. PMID:12288555

The National STD/AIDS Program (NSAP) of the Brazilian government believes that nongovernmental organizations (NGO) occupy a strategic position in mobilizing the human and financial resources needed to deal with the HIV/AIDS epidemic. NGOs are indeed partners with the state in planning and implementing a national HIV/AIDS strategy, organizations which are highly flexible and determined to deal directly with affected communities. It is especially regarding prevention among vulnerable groups and the implementation of alternative care/support strategies for people living with HIV/AIDS (PHIV) that the NSAP cooperates most directly with NGOs. This cooperation is clearly seen in NSAP funding for NGO projects conducted in 1993-94 in the following areas: the care and support of PHIV, IEC, institutional development and exchange, and behavioral interventions among the most vulnerable population groups. 102 organizations have thus far received financial aid for 170 projects. The funding of NGO projects occurs twice annually, supervised by an external committee. To help NGOs find partners for new proposals, the NSAP published a NGO directory and manual on the formulation and evaluation of community projects. NGOs receiving funding receive further orientation via an NSAP manual on administrative procedures and bookkeeping. Funds are released periodically to projects upon presentation of reports including technical, financial, and qualitative information, with monitoring taking place three times yearly by the projects in collaboration with external consultants. PMID:12289027

This website presents an introduction to the key issues affecting sustainability of ocean fisheries. It also provides direct consumer information on particular species and seafood products, using a rating system, and giving in-depth information on the particular issues leading to the ratings. Users can investigate their favorite or most commonly eaten seafood with a view towards sustainability issues.

This column highlights recently published articles that are of interest to the readership of this publication. We encourage ABRF members to forward information on articles they feel are important and useful to Clive Slaughter, GRU-UGA Medical Partnership, 1425 Prince Ave., Athens, GA 30606; Phone: 706-713-2216; Fax: 706-713-2221; E-mail: cslaught@uga.edu; or to any member of the editorial board. Article summaries reflect the reviewer's opinions and not necessarily those of the association.

Schools and universities looking to be safer and prevent accidents should review their pedestrian-safety efforts. Over the last several years, a variety of research has assessed the effectiveness of pedestrian-safety programs. In one study, researchers found that marked crosswalks had no effect on reducing pedestrian accidents. Even more…

In previous anniversary editions, this publication has featured accomplished and established higher education leaders of note. In this article, the author features 25 up-and-coming leaders, many of whom are carrying the diversity mantle forward in an avowed commitment to progress. Narrowing the field of great academicians and advocates to just 25…

Learners will compare the growth rate and appearance of crystals forming on small rocks to those growing on miscellaneous objects. Learners will also investigate how temperature (warm vs. cool room) affects crystal growth. Learners will record their observations at the start and then again after 3 hours, 1 day, and 2 days. This resource includes discussion questions to elicit reflection and help learners draw conclusions. Use this activity to introduce learners to the basics of mineral science as well as the scientific process.

During its work in Rakai district, CONCERN recognized that women lack property/inheritance rights, a situation which increases their vulnerability to HIV infection. Widows are being disinherited of all their properties, including their marital homes. Since many of these women lack both education and skills, their survival often depends upon either marrying again or engaging in sex work. Many women are ignorant of their rights under the national law. Lawyers from the Ugandan Women Lawyers Association help women and children understand their rights, but they do not provide continuously available services. CONCERN therefore initiated a program of community-based legal educators (paralegals) selected by village communities and recommended by local leaders. The paralegals must be over age 28 years, respected by the community, able to maintain confidentiality, and have participated in previous HIV/AIDS sensitization work. Selected candidates are subsequently trained by lawyers from a governmental ministry in the basics of the law pertaining to sexual abuse, marriage, inheritance, divorce, domestic violence, children's rights and responsibilities, and the legal system in Uganda, as well as referrals, gender sensitization, and adult education methods. The paralegals now provide awareness seminars in their communities which include brainstorming, role plays, use of picture codes, group discussions, and lectures. PMID:12347179

This article features individuals who were selected by International Technology Education Association (ITEA) for their outstanding leadership ability as technology educators. These individuals include William F. Bertrand, Gerald F. Day, Neil Hancey, L. Bernard Hixson, Thomas Loveland, Kris Martini, and Jerianne Taylor. This article also details…

This article reports on a powerful x-ray analysis technique that has been developed to let researchers see, in three dimensions and microscopic detail, inside a ceramic composite as it is forming. The high-resolution imaging technique, called X-ray tomographic microscopy (XTM), is similar to medical computed tomography (CT) in which physicians take X-ray images of a patient's body from different angles

College and university science programs generate hazardous waste that must be dealt with and disposed of in accordance with state and federal regulations. During a recent renovation and addition project for the State University of New York at Plattsburgh (SUNY Plattsburg), the author was contracted to analyze existing regulations, research best…

... correct anemia. In some institutions, the medication Epogen (EPO) is given to help stimulate RBC production. Anemia ... For Children In Vitro Fertilization Linked to Increased Risk for Birth Defects Managing Chronic Health Needs in ...

The NHS Counter Fraud Service has helped cut the value of fraud against the NHS from pound 171m to pound 76m. This year Philip Neal, a former finance director, was jailed for forgery after exaggerating his trust's profits. Some believe Mr Neal was treated harshly given the pressure on trusts to break even. The Counter Fraud Service has stood by the prosecution. Not all cases warrant criminal prosecution--other sanctions are available. PMID:18763342

In many geographical applications there is a need to model spatial phenom- ena not simply by sharp objects but rather through indeterminate or v ague concepts. To support such applications we present a model of v ague regions which covers and extends previous approaches. The formal framework is based on a general exact model of spatial data types. On the

This animation shows the three gene coding regions. This is the fourth of a series of seven animations that detail the process of crop genetic engineering. To begin at the beginning, see Overview of Crop Genetic Engineering. (To return to the animation previous to this, go to Gene Cloning. To go to the next animation, go to Gene Modification.)

That West African criminal networks have contributed to the growth of organised crime in Southern Africa is clear. Though often remarked upon, these networks are seldom understood. This essay assesses the information available on how these groups, mainly Nigerian, have penetrated and operated in the region. Technology, mobile phone and the internet, for instance, as well as a reliance on

Food advertisements (ads) in TV programs influence food choice and have been associated with higher energy intake from snacks in children; however, their effects at mealtime have not been reported. Therefore, we measured energy intake at a pizza meal consumed by normal weight (NW) and overweight/obese (OW/OB) children (aged 9-14 years) while they watched a TV program with or without food ads and following pre-meal consumption of a sweetened beverage with or without calories. NW and OW/OB boys (experiment 1, n = 27) and girls (experiment 2, n = 23) were randomly assigned to consume equally sweetened drinks containing glucose (1.0 g/kg body weight) or sucralose (control). Food intake was measured 30 min later while children watched a program containing food or nonfood ads. Appetite was measured before (0-30 min) and after (60 min) the meal. Both boys and girls reduced energy intake at the meal in compensation for energy in the glucose beverage (p < 0.05). Food ads resulted in further compensation (51%) in boys but not in girls. Food ads increased energy intake at the meal (9%; p = 0.03) in OW/OB girls only. In conclusion, the effects of TV programs with food ads on mealtime energy intake and response to pre-meal energy consumption in children differ by sex and body mass index. PMID:25610952

To compare the effects of three screen-based sedentary behaviours on acute energy intake (EI) in children. Normal-weight males aged 9-13 years participated in a randomised crossover trial conducted in a laboratory setting between November 2012 and February 2013 in Auckland, New Zealand. EI during an ad libitum meal was compared for three 1-hour conditions: (1) television (TV) watching, (2) sedentary video game (VG) play, and (3) recreational computer use. The primary endpoint was total EI from food and drink. Mixed regression models were used to evaluate the treatment conditions adjusting for age, BMI, and appetite at baseline. A total of 20 participants were randomised and all completed the three conditions. Total EI from food and drink in the TV, computer, and VG conditions was estimated at 820 (SE 73.15), 685 (SE 73.33), and 696 (SE 73.16) kcal, respectively, with EI being significantly greater in the TV versus computer condition (+135; P = 0.04), a trend towards greater intake in the TV versus VG condition (+124; P = 0.06), but not significantly different between the computer and VG conditions (-10; P = 0.87). TV watching was associated with greater EI compared with computer use, and a trend towards greater EI compared with VG play. PMID:24576465

In this study, we analyze the Genetic Analysis Workshop 18 (GAW18) data to identify regions of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which significantly influence hypertension status among individuals. We have studied the marginal impact of these regions on disease status in the past, but we extend the method to deal with environmental factors present in data collected over several exam periods. We consider the respective interactions between such traits as smoking status and age with the genetic information and hope to augment those genetic regions deemed influential marginally with those that contribute via an interactive effect. In particular, we focus only on rare variants and apply a procedure to combine signal among rare variants in a number of "fixed bins" along the chromosome. We extend the procedure in Agne et al [1] to incorporate environmental factors by dichotomizing subjects via traits such as smoking status and age, running the marginal procedure among each respective category (i.e., smokers or nonsmokers), and then combining their scores into a score for interaction. To avoid overlap of subjects, we examine each exam period individually. Out of a possible 629 fixed-bin regions in chromosome 3, we observe that 11 show up in multiple exam periods for gene-smoking score. Fifteen regions exhibit significance for multiple exam periods for gene-age score, with 4 regions deemed significant for all 3 exam periods. The procedure pinpoints SNPs in 8 "answer" genes, with 5 of these showing up as significant in multiple testing schemes (Gene-Smoking, Gene-Age for Exams 1, 2, and 3). PMID:25519400

The recently established CAT (Centro di Allerta Tsunami) at Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) will be part of the Italian National Tsunami Warning Center (It-NTWC) and it is a candidate Tsunami Watch Provider (cTWP) for the Mediterranean Sea in the framework of the Tsunami Early Warning and Mitigation System in the North-eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and connected seas (NEAMTWS). It-NTWC is a partnership of three Italian institutions: INGV, the Italian Department of Civil Protection (Dipartimento di Protezione Civile, DPC) and the Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale, ISPRA) which provides the sea-level data of the Italian mareographic network (Rete Mareografica Nazionale, RMN) in quasi-real-time. CAT is the operational part of the It-NTWC based at the INGV 24/7 seismic monitoring centre in Rome. CAT will be committed to deliver tsunami warning messages to DPC and, when it will enter its operational cTWP phase, to any IOC/UNESCO member state that will subscribe for the service. The current implementation of CAT is based on the NEAMTWS Decision Matrix (DM). Earthquake parameters are determined automatically by the Early-Est (EE) software, and used as an input to DM and tsunami travel times calculation to provide warning messages, including earthquake parameters, plus level of alert and estimated tsunami arrival time at pre-defined forecast points along threatened coasts. Basing on updated automatic EE solutions, seismologist's revision, and sea-level readings subsequent messages can be delivered until warning status ends. The use of the DM allows a rapid implementation of a tsunami warning system, but it does not consider some important features to better characterize a tsunami forecast, such as the earthquake's focal mechanism, the directivity of tsunami propagation and the morphology of the coast. More sophisticated procedures are currently under development: a database of pre-calculated, or calculated on the fly on GPU cards, tsunami scenarios, and rapid moment tensor calculation. The deployment of deep-sea tsunami (pressure) sensors is envisaged as well subject to budgetary constraints. A Decision Support System (DSS) is under development in order to integrate the different sources of information (earthquake parameters estimates and prior knowledge of the tectonic setting, numerical tsunami forecast, sea-level readings), and assist decision making during the first minutes after an event. CAT participated successfully in several NEAM communication tests within its function of National Tsunami Warning Focal Point (NTWFP) and the delivery of messages to DPC, ISPRA, and local authorities has also been tested. Preliminary CAT procedures have been tested internally, that is without delivering messages, also for two recent Mediterranean earthquakes: the M=6.6 occurred the 12th October 2013 offshore Crete and the M=5.9 occurred the 28th December 2013 offshore between Turkey and Cyprus. Here, we will present the current CAT implementation and describe its future developments.

Disease outbreaks of international public health importance continue to occur regularly; detecting and tracking significant new public health threats in countries that cannot or might not report such events to the global health community is a challenge. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Global Disease Detection (GDD) Operations Center, established in early 2007, monitors infectious and non-infectious public health events to identify new or unexplained global public health threats and better position CDC to respond, if public health assistance is requested or required. At any one time, the GDD Operations Center actively monitors approximately 30–40 such public health threats; here we provide our perspective on five of the top global infectious disease threats that we were watching in 2012: (1) avian influenza A (H5N1), (2) cholera, (3) wild poliovirus, (4) enterovirus-71, and (5) extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis. PMID:23827387

World regional geography textbooks rarely focus on the process of region formation, despite frequent calls to reincorporate a regional approach to teaching global geography. An instructional strategy using problem-based learning in a small honors section of a large world regional geography course is described. Using a hypothetical scenario…

A setup for the simultaneous measurement of mid-infrared spectra and static light scattering is described that can be used for the analysis of the formation of nanoscale and microscopic aggregates from smaller molecules to biopolymers. It can be easily integrated into sample chambers of infrared spectrometers or combined with laser beams from tunable infrared lasers. Here, its use for the analysis of the formation of amyloid fibrils from intact proteins is demonstrated. The formation of amyloid fibrils or plaques from proteins is a widespread and pathogenetic relevant process, and a number of diseases are caused and correlated with the deposition of amyloid fibrils in cells and tissues. The molecular mechanisms of these transformations, however, are still unclear. We report here the simultaneous measurement of infrared spectra and static light scattering for the analysis of fibril formation from egg-white lysozyme. The transformation of the native form into non-native forms rich in ?-sheet structure is measured by analysis of the amide I spectral region in the infrared spectra, which is sensitive for local structures. At the same time, light scattering signals at forward direction as well as the forward/backward ratio, which are sensitive for the number of scattering centers and their approximate sizes, respectively, are collected for the analysis of fibril growth. Thermodynamic and kinetic parameters as well as mechanistic information are deduced from the combination of the two complementary techniques.

Contamination of persistent organochlorines (OCs) such as PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), DDT and its metabolites (DDTs), HCH (hexachlorocyclohexane) isomers (HCHs), chlordane compounds (CHLs), and HCB (hexachlorobenzene) were examined in mussels collected from coastal waters of Asian countries such as Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Far East Russia, Singapore, and Vietnam in 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2001 to elucidate the contamination status, distribution and possible pollution sources and to assess the risks on aquatic organisms and human. OCs were detected in all mussels collected from all the sampling sites investigated. Considerable residue levels of p,p(')-DDT and alpha-HCH were found in mussels and the concentrations of DDTs and HCHs found in mussels from Asian developing countries were higher than those in developed nations suggesting present usage of DDTs and HCHs along the coastal waters of Asian developing countries. On the other hand, lower concentrations of PCBs detected in mussels from Asian developing countries than those in developed countries indicate that PCBs contamination in mussels is strongly related to industrial and activities. To our knowledge, this is a first comprehensive report on monitoring OCs pollution in the Asia-Pacific region. PMID:12604061

Although adult skeletal morphological variation is best understood within the framework of age-related processes, relatively little research has been directed towards the structure of and variation in trabecular bone during ontogeny. We report here new quantitative and structural data on trabecular bone microarchitecture in the proximal tibia during growth and development, as demonstrated in a subadult archaeological skeletal sample from the Late Prehistoric Ohio Valley. These data characterize the temporal sequence and variation in trabecular bone structure and structural parameters during ontogeny as related to the acquisition of normal functional activities and changing body mass. The skeletal sample from the Fort Ancient Period site of SunWatch Village is composed of 33 subadult and three young adult proximal tibiae. Nondestructive microCT scanning of the proximal metaphyseal and epiphyseal tibia captures the microarchitectural trabecular structure, allowing quantitative structural analyses measuring bone volume fraction, degree of anisotropy, trabecular thickness, and trabecular number. The microCT resolution effects on structural parameters were analyzed. Bone volume fraction and degree of anisotropy are highest at birth, decreasing to low values at 1 year of age, and then gradually increasing to the adult range around 6-8 years of age. Trabecular number is highest at birth and lowest at skeletal maturity; trabecular thickness is lowest at birth and highest at skeletal maturity. The results of this study highlight the dynamic sequential relationships between growth/development, general functional activities, and trabecular distribution and architecture, providing a reference for comparative studies. PMID:18785633

This bulletin on the state of the ozone over the Antarctic region was released August 25, 2000, by the Switzerland-based World Meteorological Organization (WMO). WMO Bulletins, released twice monthly between August and December, are based upon provisional data from the WMO Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) stations. The purpose of these reports is to view changes in ozone over time. Averaged ground-based data from 1964 to 1976 (WMO Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 1998) are used to infer changes in current ozone amounts from pre-ozone hole conditions. The August 25 Bulletin is an update to that of August 11. This report shows an average decrease of about 30 percent in the total amount of ozone overhead when compared to the 1964-76 norms. This is double the fifteen percent reported August 11 and is unusual for this time of year.

Regional sustainable environmental management is an interdisciplinary effort to develop a sufficient understanding of the interactions between ecosystems, the economy, law, and technology to formulate effective long-term management strategies on a regional scale. Regional sustai...

Regional Climate Centres (RCCs) are institutions with the capacity and mandate by WMO to develop high quality regional-scale products using global products and incorporating regional information. Recently a pilot network of three RCC consortia was established for the WMO region RA VI (Europe and Middle East): • RCC node on climate data, • RCC node on climate monitoring, • RCC node on long-range forecasting. DWD/Germany has taken the responsibility of the RCC node on climate monitoring (RRC-CM). Further consortium members are Armstatehydromet/Armenia, Météo-France/France, KNMI/The Netherlands, RHMS/Serbia, and TSMS/Turkey. RCCs provide online access to their products and services to national meteorological and hydrological services and to other regional users. Vice versa, RCCs receive data, products, know-how and feedbacks from the meteorological services as a main source for regional information. By the same time, they provide regional data, products and feedbacks to Global Production Centres and Lead Centres for respective verification and product optimisation of the global-scale information. The RCC-CM will perform basic functions covering the domain of climate monitoring: • Annual and monthly climate diagnostic bulletins, • Monthly monitoring maps: global, RAVI, Eastern Mediterranean, South Caucasus, • Reference climatologies and trend maps, • RA VI climate monitoring WebPortal, • Climate watches, • Training; Research and Development (R&D). The poster shows the current stage of development of the RCC-CM by means of example products.

Human cystic echinococcosis is a chronic, complex and neglected infection. Its clinical management has evolved over decades without adequate evaluation of efficacy. Recent expert opinion recommends that uncomplicated inactive cysts of the liver should be left untreated and solely monitored over time ("watch-and-wait" approach). However, clinical data supporting this approach are still scant and published mostly as conference proceedings. In this study, we report our experience with long-term sonographic and serological follow-up of inactive cysts of the liver. From March 1994 to October 2013, 38 patients with 47 liver cysts, diagnosed as inactive without any previous treatment history, were followed with ultrasound and serology at 6-12 months intervals for a period of at least 24 months (median follow-up 51.95 months) in our outpatient clinic. In 97.4% of patients, the cysts remained inactive over time and in only one case was reactivation of the cyst detected. No complications occurred during the time of monitoring. During follow-up, serology tests for CE were negative at diagnosis or became negative in 74.1% and were positive or became positive in 25.9% of cases. Patients with inactive cysts on ultrasound but positive serological tests were also investigated by CT scan (chest and abdomen) to rule out extra-hepatic cyst localization. This study confirms the importance of a stage-specific approach to the management of cystic echinococcosis and supports the use of a monitoring-only approach to inactive, uncomplicated cysts of the liver. It also confirms that serology plays only an ancillary role in the clinical management of these patients, compared to ultrasound and other imaging techniques. The implications of these findings for clinical management and natural history of cystic echinococcosis are discussed. PMID:25122222

Although the multimodal stimulation provided by modern audiovisual video games is pleasing by itself, the rewarding nature of video game playing depends critically also on the players' active engagement in the gameplay. The extent to which active engagement influences dopaminergic brain reward circuit responses remains unsettled. Here we show that striatal reward circuit responses elicited by successes (wins) and failures (losses) in a video game are stronger during active than vicarious gameplay. Eleven healthy males both played a competitive first-person tank shooter game (active playing) and watched a pre-recorded gameplay video (vicarious playing) while their hemodynamic brain activation was measured with 3-tesla functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Wins and losses were paired with symmetrical monetary rewards and punishments during active and vicarious playing so that the external reward context remained identical during both conditions. Brain activation was stronger in the orbitomedial prefrontal cortex (omPFC) during winning than losing, both during active and vicarious playing. In contrast, both wins and losses suppressed activations in the midbrain and striatum during active playing; however, the striatal suppression, particularly in the anterior putamen, was more pronounced during loss than win events. Sensorimotor confounds related to joystick movements did not account for the results. Self-ratings indicated losing to be more unpleasant during active than vicarious playing. Our findings demonstrate striatum to be selectively sensitive to self-acquired rewards, in contrast to frontal components of the reward circuit that process both self-acquired and passively received rewards. We propose that the striatal responses to repeated acquisition of rewards that are contingent on game related successes contribute to the motivational pull of video-game playing. PMID:23781195

......................................................................................................... 1-8 Report Organization..................................................................................................................... 1-9 Chapter 2 - Regional Assessment and Needs Overview of Region... service organizations, citizens of the Golden Crescent Region and The Goodman Corporation (TGC) transportation project team formed an advisory committee to oversee the process and have worked together to develop a comprehensive regional public...

Wheeler S. Regions, megaregions, and sustainability, Regional Studies. The rapid expansion of urbanized regions is problematic for sustainable development. Urbanization at large scales has inherent sustainability problems, and planning institutions and governance mechanisms have had limited success at the metropolitan scale, let alone at a megaregional one. A vision of more sustainable regional development includes an emphasis on balanced local

The Regional Workbench Consortium (RWBC) is a collaborative network of university and community-based partners dedicated to enabling sustainable city-region development. The RWBC focuses on the Southern California-Northern Baja California transborder region - especially the San Diego-Tijuana city-region and coastal zone.

Halogenated gases potentially harmful to the stratospheric ozone layer are monitored worldwide in order to assess compliance with the Montreal Protocol requiring a phase out of these compounds on a global scale. We present the results of long term (2002-2011) continuous observation conducted at the Mt. Cimone GAW Global Station located on the highest peak of the Italian Northern Apennines, at the border of two important regions: the Po Valley (and the Alps) to the North and the Mediterranean Basin to the South. Bi-hourly air samples of CFC-12, CFC-11, CFC-114, CFC-115, H-1211, H-1301, methyl chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, HCFC-22, HCFC-142b, HCFC-124 and methyl bromide are collected and analysed using a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer, providing multi annual time series. In order to appreciate the effectiveness of the Montreal Protocol from a regional perspective, trends and annual growth rates of halogenated species have been calculated after identification of their baseline values. A comparison with results from other international observation programmes is also presented. Our data show that the peak in the atmospheric mixing ratios of four chlorofluorocarbons, two halons and two chlorocarbons has been reached and all these species now show a negative atmospheric trend. Pollution episodes are still occurring for species like halon-1211, methyl chloroform and carbon tetrachloride, indicating fresh emissions from the site domain which could be ascribed both to fugitive un-reported uses of the compounds and/or emissions from banks. For the hydrofluorocarbons changes in the baseline are affected by emissions from fast developing Countries in East Asia. Fresh emissions from the site domain are clearly declining. Methyl bromide, for which the Mediterranean area is an important source region, shows, in a generally decreasing trend, an emission pattern that is not consistent with the phase-out schedule of this compound, with a renewed increase in the last two years of pollution episodes. PMID:23333511

State University Presented at Arkansas River Basin Water Forum April 7, 2005, Trinidad, Colorado Prepared by Odie Bliss #12;How do we monitor the climate of Colorado? Rangeland pasture near Trinidad, Colo Stations #12;February 2005 Precipitation Totals #12;Trinidad Average Temperatures Trinidad Average Annual

A nonparametric and general method of linkage analysis has been developed. The repeated measure strategy of Speilman has been adapted to the conditional logistic function to establish linkage by stepwise modeling of transmission from parent to progeny. No foreknowledges of genetic association, linkage nor mode of inheritance is required. The effects at multiple loci are easily modelled. Such logistic transmission

When the first author (Morton Ann Gernsbacher) was in graduate school, she once sat in on an undergraduate entry-level cognition course to see how one of the department's best teachers conveyed the excitement and exquisiteness of cognitive psychology to an audience of 19-year-olds. This professor began the first day by posing the following challenge: Imagine that you were sent to

IN connection with the indication of universal time by our future timepieces, I venture to suggest that the hours should be contained in one circle; but, instead of being numbered consecutively from 1 to 24, they might be arranged in Roman numerals, as at present, and if figured alternately would be almost, if not quite, as distinct as on the

I WOULD suggest, as a modification of ``R. B.'s'' suggestion in NATURE (p. 80), that the striking of the clocks on the twenty-four system might be varied at each quarter of the day, so as to indicate the time without so much striking. Thus, 1 (a.m.) to 6 might be indicated by the usual method; 7 could be indicated by

IF clocks are to strike at all, surely once per hour is insufficient, while four times is excessive; the high hour-numbers even now are inconvenient to count, and with the quarters heard alone it is possible to make a mistake of an hour. I cannot but think, then, on the whole, that the necessities of ship-life have long driven mariners

As people have become more dependent on information technology, they have also become more aware of the potential consequences of attacks to information systems. Computer security made front-page news in the 1990s because of the \\

Â­ nately, a great deal of effort must still be expended to colÂ­ lec t the speech da ta itself , both in mak service. We use the SphinxÂ­II system, which is a largeÂ­vocabuÂ­ lary, speakerÂ­independent, continuous

This site provides nesting data for loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) using this South Carolina beach. Entries include: location, date discovered, number of eggs, expected and actual hatch dates, percent hatched, and photos. Data archives extend back to 1998. Site also includes information: on what you can do to help nesting turtles, strandings, impacts of beachfront construction on sea turtles, and a photo collection of turtle nesting.

The transitions of antibody therapeutics to late-stage clinical development, regulatory review and the market are proceeding at a rapid pace in 2013. Since late 2012, two monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapeutics (itolizumab, trastuzumab emtansine) received their first approvals, first marketing applications for three mAbs (vedolizumab, ramucirumab, obinutuzumab) were submitted to regulatory agencies, and five mAbs (brodalumab, MABp1, moxetumomab pasudotox, tildrakizumab, rilotumumab) entered their first Phase 3 studies. The current total of commercially-sponsored antibody therapeutics undergoing evaluation in late-stage studies is 30. Recently announced study results for farletuzumab, naptumomab estafenatox, and tabalumab indicate that clinical endpoints were not met in some Phase 3 studies of these product candidates. PMID:23727858

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are a burgeoning class of therapeutics, with more than 25 approved in countries worldwide. Novel molecules are entering clinical study at a rate of nearly 40 per year, and the commercial pipeline includes approximately 240 mAb therapeutics in clinical studies that have not yet progressed to regulatory approval or been approved. Of particular interest are the 26 mAbs that are currently at Phase 3, when safety and efficacy data critical to approval is established. Phase 3 study lengths are typically two to four years, so results for some studies might be announced in 2010, but data from others might not be presented until 2014. This overview of the 26 candidates provides a brief description of the background and the on-going Phase 3 studies of each mAb. Additional mAbs that have progressed to regulatory review or been approved may also be in Phase 3 studies, but these, as well as Fc fusion proteins, have been excluded. Due to the large body of primary literature about the 26 candidates, only selected references are given, with a focus on recent publications and articles that were relevant to Phase 3 studies. Current as of October 2009, the results presented here will serve as a baseline against which future progress can be measured. PMID:20065640

Describes using domesticated, wild, or feral animals to teach students about nature and animal behavior. Connections can be made with psychology, economics, genetics, history, art, and other disciplines. The study of animal behavior provides opportunities for harmless student experimentation. (SAH)

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The European Commission (EC) supports programs using radio to inform and educate about HIV and AIDS in developing countries, particularly with regard to illiterate or rural populations. In 1992, in Comoros (where 80% of adults and 65% of persons aged 15-25 listen to radio and there is no national television and only one printed medium--a French magazine), as part of a National AIDS Programme initiative aimed at mobilizing youth and women leaders, two journalists of the national radio channel produced an EC-supported series of 20 radio programs that were broadcast twice weekly every other week as part of the popular program "Sante" (Health). A series of 11 programs were broadcast in 1994-95 by Radio Comoros and by two private stations that were popular with youth. Surveys showed the following: 1) the popular shows were the main source of information on HIV/AIDS and were particularly successful in rural communities when broadcast in the local language; 2) the majority of villagers wanted this and other health information to continue; and 3) public information regarding sexuality was accepted by a large majority. The radio series caused Islamic religious leaders to discuss HIV prevention and condoms. An EC-supported project in Morocco occurred in 1993. The 3-month national information campaign about HIV/AIDS covered myths and rumors, infection risks, prevention measures, the disease and women and youth, the epidemic's socioeconomic impact, the role of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and the role of the media. A 1-hour program in Arabic was broadcast twice a week for 24 weeks, 12 30-minute programs were broadcast in three Berber dialects, and several short spots were aired daily. The program format included presentations and discussions by health staff, psychologists, sociologists, and NGO staff; listener participation was allowed. 1000 men and 700 women were surveyed using a questionnaire. Roadside interviews were conducted in some cities. These showed that the information was understood. Many listeners criticized the lack of information on television and wanted more information broadcast. PMID:12347931

Tropical Storm Allison is the focus of this latest report from the National Climatic Data Center Report. Allison is blamed for the tremendous flooding in Texas and Louisiana, where over 30 inches of rainfall was recorded in some locales. Other climate extremes noted in this report include severe drought in Brazil and Western Asia, flooding in South China, and major thunderstorms and tornadoes in the midwestern US. A satellite image of Allison over the Gulf of Mexico and links to data accompany the text.